


and Hope to Die

by olimakiella



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-23
Updated: 2014-06-23
Packaged: 2018-02-05 22:30:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 24,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1834495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/olimakiella/pseuds/olimakiella
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Strategically placed pieces of Wizarding artwork are going missing in the United Kingdom. Only, when the dots are connected to a darker plot, Harry Potter learns that there are classified places in the Ministry that only few people get to see. And just what the hell is the Centre of Magical Intelligence anyway?</p>
            </blockquote>





	and Hope to Die

**Author's Note:**

> This submission is part of HD Smoochfest on Livejournal. The theme this year is Media Remix, which invited participants to "remix" the story from a Book, Movie, or Television Show. The author/artist will be revealed at the end of the fest.
> 
> This was created for Prompt Number: M49  
> Original Work Name: Skyfall (James Bond)
> 
> Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters herein are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No copyright infringement is intended.
> 
> Author's Notes: SCENARIO: Harry is one of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement's best Agent. When M.o.M security is breached, Harry must track down and destroy the threat with the help of Draco. Additional request: (totally optional, of course) 1. Perhaps a terrorist cell threatens to leak sensitive information or break the anonymity of the Wizarding world, etc. 2. Draco is the Head of a Department that specialises in Curses/Magical Warfare/Innovation perhaps. 3. The terrorist cell is led by a renegade Agent (someone close to Harry). 4. Workplace smexing on Draco's desk? xD. I tried to hit all of them especially that last one XD, though it’s a bit tamer than I’m accustomed to writing. I hope you like it anyway.
> 
> See the End Notes for the floor plan of the CMI and as always, much love to the most awesomest beta in the world, nenne, who doesn’t want my firstborn but will settle with my undying love for being so awesome.

 

 

****~*~****

**and Hope to Die**

**_“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”_  
― Arthur C. Clarke,  _Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible_**

****~*~****

  
  
Kensington was warm. The new high rise buildings blocked any and all wind coming off the Thames and Harry finally understood what all the protests were about. The Housing and Development Department in the Ministry (created shortly after the war ended to help find war victims homes when theirs had been unceremoniously burned to the ground) needed a better system when finding locations. Blocking the wind made it hot, and the nearby water wasn't helping. Humidity was no one’s friend.  
  
Harry used the sleeve of his uniform to wipe the sweat from his forehead. Summer was murder these days and the heat wave sweeping over London was killing them all slowly. Cooling charms were only so helpful. The hotter it got, the cooler they became to counteract the heat. Harry looked over at Ron. The redhead wasn’t sweating at all, but he was rubbing his hands together. Harry shook his head with a fond smile. At some point Ron wouldn’t be able to feel his fingers. Harry’d been there two weeks ago and vowed never to be there again. Once was enough to learn that being able to actually feel your own wand in your hand was worth a little sweat.  
  
“Up ahead.” Harry’s attention snapped to Vane’s position. Romilda was stationed at the other side of the alley looking towards the building they were about to raid. Harry couldn’t wait until this case was over. If he had to look at another beaten child… he could already feel his magic vibrating under his skin, the prickle of it worse than the sweat dripping down his back. He swapped his wand to his left hand and shook out his right. It ached sometimes when his magic ran with his emotions and he didn’t use it.  
  
A noise up ahead startled them all into absolute stillness. Harry stopped shaking his hand, Ron stopped rubbing his together and Romilda crouched lower to the ground as a side door of the alley opened. It spilled light upon the garbage she was hiding behind.  
  
There was sobbing inside, Harry could hear it from his position and he shut his eyes imagining blades, razor thin and shining with a green tint in the light. As expected that familiar warm prickle ran up his spine. It dispersed with a shiver across his shoulders and settled, tinging the nerves of his hands.  
  
He waited.  
  
When the door shut, the tension was still there. It stretched thin and ready to snap like a rubber band.  
  
Vane rose slowly to peer over the heap of garbage, the extra bag that had been thrown there slipping to the side noisily. “Child confirmed,” was all she said. Behind Harry, Ron was fiddling with the round disc-shaped glass they had been given. The disc was thin and had etched grid lines on them showing their position and the chosen magic signature of whomever they were tracking. Wherever ‘Spell Development’ was, Harry wanted to send them some flowers or something because, as the disc lit with a green pulsing circle ahead of their position, all he could feel was the cool sense of relief. They had their suspect and they had their victim.  
  
“Move in,” Ron said and looked at Harry. “Try to keep him alive, yeah?”  
  
Harry harrumphed. “No promises.”

 

 

*******

  
  
Across from the Minister of Magic, Harry looked around the walls waiting for the man to speak. The portraits were scattered around the wall bordering the door behind him, all of them looking at him and Kingsley as if they were waiting for the conversation too. It was strange. Of all the times he’d been in the room, never once had he seen every single portrait full and so attentive. Portraits were very often asleep whenever he saw them in the past.  
  
“Harry,” Kingsley Shacklebolt said jovially, snapping Harry out of his thoughts. “Congratulations on your success.”  
  
Harry shrugged modestly. “It was team effort, sir. I don’t think I would have made it out of there without Romilda and Ron.” That was true. Ron had to practically throw himself over Harry to stop him from attacking Roger Sackwell, the child kidnapper.  
  
Kingsley nodded. “Good, I like to hear that. The DMLE has been tracking Sackwell for months. We put your team on the case and, within a week, we have him in custody.”  
  
Harry shifted. “Suppose I could relate, sir.”  
  
If anything, Kingsley seemed more interested in this than the case. “How so?”  
  
Harry’s pause was short. “Well, children in an… unpleasant environment is a bit of a specialty of mine.”  
  
“Hmm, and not the only one from what I hear.”  
  
“Pardon?”  
  
Kingsley held up a sheet of parchment. Harry recognised it as the sheets aurors used to write their reports. It was said there was some sort of solution the parchment was soaked in that prevented them from telling a lie, but it was bullocks, Harry had purposefully written a lie just to see what it would do.  
  
It did nothing.  
  
Kingsley began reading from Ron’s report. “Weasley wrote here that you used magic continuously.”  
  
Harry nodded. He’d read that himself. “I did, sir.”  
  
Kingsley cocked an eyebrow then picked up another sheet of parchment. “And yet, Vane stated that your wand was knocked from your hand early on in your altercation.”  
  
Harry became quiet. He’d asked Romilda to change that and she said she had. He’d read it himself.  
  
Kingsley chuckled. “It’s quite alright, Harry. You’re not in trouble. It’s for this reason I called you in. We have a need for someone like you.”  
  
 _Who’s we?_  “What need?”  
  
“I’m afraid it’s classified, unless you tell me you’re willing to be part of the team. Tell me, how long have you been wandless?”  
  
Harry bit on his bottom lip for a moment before deciding to go with the truth. “Since I was younger, but I couldn’t control it then,” he added as if that would gain him points somehow.  
  
“No? And you can now?”  
  
Harry nodded. “It’s easier now.”  
  
“Well that’s wonderf-” a knock at the door interrupted his praise and he called the person to come in. Harry turned to see a young man standing by the door. “Yes?” Kingsley said waiting.  
  
“Minister Shacklebolt we’ve received confirmation. I was sent to inform you.”  
  
Kingsley’s expression went grave and, if Harry glanced up at the portraits on the wall, he’d see them all staring at the newcomer with intense concentration too. “And?”  
  
“10 Downing Street is gone, Scotland Yard is gone... so is Buckingham Palace.”  
  
Kingsley sighed the sigh of men in great distress as the portraits all exclaimed their own thoughts on the matter. “Damn it.”  
  
Harry, incredibly confused. “Wait, what do you mean, gone?” he asked alarmed.  
  
Kingsley watched him, silencing the portraits with a wave of his wand. Harry turned to them seeing some of them had given up trying to talk and others were continuing their silent rants for Kingsley to hear. “That depends, Harry. Are you in or out?” When Harry finally nodded in affirmation, Kingsley stood. “Then you’ll need to follow me.”

 

 

*******

  
  
Harry followed Kingsley out of the lift and eyed the short corridor ahead. “Where are we?” He didn’t know what floor they were on either, Kingsley had pressed a blank space by the lifts controls.  
  
“This is a relatively new department, three floors down from our floor. It’s been around for about seven years.”  
  
 _Like the Housing and Development Department?_  “So since the war?”  
  
Kingsley nodded once. “Since the war. It’s called the Centre of Magical Intelligence. A bit dramatic,” he said and shrugged, “but what can you expect from a bunch of Slytherins, I suppose.” Harry paused for a moment before he continued walking. “Much of what is used around the entire structure of the Ministry of Magic is created and built here, even some of the spells.”  
  
Harry immediately thought of the tracking disc they used all the time in the DMLE. “This is Spell Development?” he asked.  
  
Kingsley turned to him as they stood outside the door at the end of the corridor. “Spell development? Is that what they’ve been telling you?” He chuckled just as the door opened. “Ah, Sarah.”  
  
A slim, tall and blond woman stopped as she was passing them by and smiled. “Good afternoon, Minister Shacklebolt.” Harry looked at the badge on the lanyard around her neck. There was a crest there he couldn’t make out properly without staring too hard, but her position was clear as day. ‘Branch Technician’ it read under her name.  
  
Kingsley smiled in kind. “Where is your slave driver?”  
  
She gave a fond grin and chuckled, then opened the door further and stood aside. “He’s on the main floor. Saw him over there with Marjorie last. He may not speak to you at first, Perkins is in the middle of a track.”  
  
“I see, thank you.” She gave him a nod, glancing Harry’s way for a moment before taking her leave.  
  
“A track?” Harry asked when she was out of earshot.  
  
Kingsley shook his head. “I have no idea. You get used to having no idea when you’re down here.” He gave Harry a rueful grin and patted him on the back encouragingly. “It’s very impressive, though. Come on.” He opened the doors and stepped into the large round room. There was a platform circling the room and steps down to what Sarah must have been referring to as the main floor. One desk stood there half-circling the single step up and it was covered in various papers. On the ground of the raised area, Harry’s eyes were immediately drawn to the crest there. It was oval and in the centre stood a key framed by a pair of wings. To either side of the wings sat a fox and a squirrel. Under them all was a scroll banner, ‘ ** _saepe summe ingenia in occulto latent_** ’. Circling the top of the crest were the words ‘Centre for Magical Intelligence’ and the initials C.M.I. along the bottom.

 

 

  
  
Okay, yes, he was impressed and he hadn’t even seen any ‘intelligence’ yet.  
  
Seven very large, rectangular, empty portrait frames, with no backing, lined the circular wall around the room. It was an odd decor, as all they did was bring attention to the bare wall behind them. Harry was tapped on the shoulder and he turned to Kingsley, following behind the man as he walked off. His awed gaze still strayed to the frames though. Around them, people were moving busily. Apparently, they were in the middle of an operation. Harry reminded himself that they were doing a ‘track’ or something. He had to learn the language down here if he was going to be working with them all. Fireplaces sparked and crackled to the right of the room and a group was standing next to them talking in hushed tones. Harry ignored them as he walked past. His attention, instead, centred on the blond with his back to him as he leaned down to speak with a woman sitting in front of him because ‘blond man’ and ‘Slytherin’, in Harry’s world, could only mean one thing.  
  
“Malfoy,” Kingsley said to get the man’s attention. “I brought your operative.”  
  
“Is that so?” Malfoy said without turning around. He was still reading whatever the woman was showing him. “I do hope you managed to stick to my criteria this time. I asked for an expert in wild magic. A wandless caster with no training. You sent me a man who knew how to cast a  _Lumos_  on his finger.”  
  
Kingsley glanced behind him to Harry with a knowing look on his face. Harry simply rolled his eyes, not surprised in the least at this behaviour. “You have to be trained to be wandless?” Kingsley asked.  
  
Malfoy turned around. Harry wished he could see his face, but Kingsley’s large body was blocking him from sight. “Most people do. Some pick up as they go along. Our profilers outlined our suspect’s type. He’s wandless, but not because he chooses to be.” Draco walked up to Kingsley, skim reading the transcript given to him. “He’s had no specialised training, so we need someone who is the same.”  
  
Harry stepped out from Kingsley’s shadow and smiled at the shocked look taking over Draco Malfoy’s face. “I didn’t know that,” he said simply.  
  
Malfoy stared at him and then at Kingsley. His arms dropped to his sides and his expression changed to: ‘ _of course you brought me Potter_ ’. “You weren’t trained?” he asked instead. Based on what Harry knew of him, it showed remarkable restraint.  
  
“I... didn’t know you had to be.” Malfoy gave him a considering look before he was called from across the room.  
  
The blond pointed at him and then at the spot he was standing on. “Stay right there.” He rounded them and took the sheet of parchment he was handed, reading through it. Harry noticed that, as he walked, the ground resonated with a blue tinted light. It pulsed wherever he stepped like a beacon light on a radar. It was eerie, like the floor was lined with miniscule gridlines and every step the blond took made them visible. Harry looked down to where he stood. There was nothing there. When he looked around, no one else seemed to find this strange so he kept his mouth shut.  
  
Odd.  
  
Across the room, Malfoy smirked in satisfaction. “He ate it,” Harry heard him say.  
  
“Sir,” the woman in front of him said in confirmation.  
  
Draco hummed. “Good girl.” He bypassed Harry and walked to the raised dais with the crest in the centre of the room. It was then, Harry realised the desk there was his. Of course it was. As his fingers brushed aside the papers there and touched the polished dark stone of the desk, it lit up, glowing the same soft blue as the ground had. “Tell Perkins to start up the beacon and bring up the frames,” he said to the room in general. “Get me eyes on London.”  
  
Harry moved out of the way as the entire department seemed to shift as one at Draco’s command. His eyes caught on the tint of colour on the ground as if something was alight behind him and turned.  
  
His opinion of this department skyrocketed.  
  
One by one, colours began to whorl on the large, thin, empty frames set in the walls around him. He took a step closer to one of them. He wanted to touch it. Badly. It didn’t make any sense. He’d seen them empty before. The room seemed to light up with the multi-coloured palettes until, eventually, they phased into pictures of what he knew as London. His brow creased in confusion. No wizard would have those video feeds, they were all from cameras. Muggle cameras. He looked closer. They reminded him of CCTV.  
  
That wasn’t possible. “Is that - that’s Muggle technology. How is this -”  _You get used to having no idea when you’re down here._  Kingsley had said. A chanced glance at the man showed that this wasn’t out of the ordinary. He gave up on that question and instead asked, “Why are  _you_  using it?” He turned to the blond in question.  
  
Draco looked at him as if he had a screw loose. “Because it’s everywhere, obviously” he said. “We wouldn’t be a very ‘intelligent’ intelligence department if we ignored that.” He looked back at the screen and pointed at the cafe their suspect just exited. The video feed changed from one angle to another as he walked across the street. “See that? Cameras on every street, every corner; banks, shops, schools, bus stops, trains. They have cameras  _underground_  and  _in space_ ,” Draco listed. He sighed in content. “Muggles are all so suspicious of each other,” he added quietly. He glanced at Harry and gave him a smug smile. “Gloriously useful.” Turning back to the screen Draco stepped forward and leaned on his desk in the middle of the room. He narrowed his eyes as something caught his attention. “Zoom in on that. In his hand. Quickly.” He cocked his head to the side as the image was brought up. “What is that?”  
  
Harry narrowed his eyes as he watched the man walking down the high street. “It’s an iPod,” he said simply. Looked like a nano.  
  
Draco turned to him. “A what?”  
  
Harry turned to face him. “iPod, an mp3 player? You can use it to listen to music and-” At Draco’s grave look, he trailed off - “and whatever,” he finished lamely.  
  
“It’s a listening device?” His voice sounded like he was contemplating something.  
  
Harry shrugged. “Yeah, but you can only listen to things you’ve already placed onto it. Like music.”  
  
Draco stared at him pensively. “And whatever,” he repeated. “Charles!” he called sharply.  
  
“Sir!” a short man with dark brown hair and a knitted vest over his shirt replied instantly. Harry recognised the badge on his jumper. Like Sarah, he was one of the Branch Technicians.  
  
“Make sure you keep your eyes on him. Notify me the second we lose his location.” Charles nodded once in affirmation. “Potter.” Harry waited. “With me.” Draco left his station, circled the side and walked toward the stairs. Harry took one last look at the wonders that encircled the room before he followed.

 

 

*******

  
  
Harry stepped into Draco Malfoy’s office, not surprised to find it just as astounding as the rest of the department he’d seen so far. One whole wall of Draco’s office was made entirely of glass, most likely to oversee his department when he wasn’t on the main floor. Kingsley had told him as they traversed the stairs that the whole branch was made up of three floors: Administration, Operations and Research and Development. Having just seen the operations floor, and being on the administration floor (which was nothing to shake a stick at either), he actually wanted to see Research and Development very badly, as it was apparently where the things he couldn’t believe he was seeing (and some of the devices they actually used upstairs) were designed and made. Harry was excited. He hadn’t felt like this since his first visit to Diagon Alley.  
  
Draco’s door said ‘Head of Department’ and Harry smiled as he shut it behind Kingsley. He let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding.  _Draco Malfoy_  ran a department in the Ministry of Magic. A secret department that was held in higher esteem than the bloody DMLE. Harry wondered if Hermione knew. Ron would have a field day. He couldn’t believe it. Draco rounded the desk in his office and sat down. He stared at Harry for a second as he watched the bustle of the workers outside before shifting his gaze to Kingsley. “So, Potter is my operative? I’d like to say I’m surprised, but I suppose it was only a matter of time. You are still alive after all,” he said, side eying the brunet.  
  
“And kicking,” Harry replied with a grin, finally sitting down.  
  
Draco cocked an eyebrow. “And powerful, more than I believed too.” He sat back in his desk chair and cocked his head to the side. “You were never trained with wandless magic?” he asked again, finding it hard to believe.  
  
Harry shook his head. “Like I said, I didn’t know you had to be. It used to come out sporadically when I was younger. If I was really upset or wanted something hard enough, it would just happen. That was before I knew I was a wizard though.”  
  
Draco seemed intrigued enough to still stare at him, even as Kingsley spoke. “Malfoy, I have a job that actually requires my attention.” The blond man finally settled his eyes on his boss. “Can I trust you to get Potter outfitted with clearance to the department? He’ll need a run-down of what goes on around here too. Merlin knows it took me a while.”  
  
Harry was surprised to see an amused smile light Malfoy’s face. “Will do. Go back to pushing paper, Shacklebolt, that’s a chap.”  
  
Kingsley narrowed his eyes playfully. “Insolent little…” he grumbled and turned to Harry. “Good luck, Harry.” He looked askance at Malfoy. “You may need it.”  
  
Harry chuckled. “I don’t doubt it, sir.” They both watched Kingsley leave, but when Harry turned back to the blond, he was watching him with interest.  
  
“So you continued to hide it? Your wild magic? Did you have it in school?”  
  
Harry felt a little embarrassed again. “Yeah, but it was less manageable than now.”  
  
Draco shifted forward, eyes intent. “How so?”  
  
Harry shifted uncomfortably. “Why is this important?” Kingsley had talked around it, but no one had told him why his wild magic was what got him the job.  
  
Draco seemed to get that Harry didn’t want to talk about it. He narrowed his eyes in thought before letting it go. For now. “Madley. Does that ring a bell?” he said instead.  
  
Harry shook his head. “A suspect?” He thought about it for a moment. “Can’t say that it does.”  
  
Draco smirked. “Wouldn’t have thought so. The Madley’s have been Hufflepuffs for as long as anyone can remember. Laura Madley was three years below us.”  
  
“He has known family? Did we question them?”  
  
Draco shrugged. “Father died in the war. We questioned Laura, not much help though, didn’t even know she had a brother. Well -  _half_  brother.” At Harry’s confused expression, he explained. “There is a marriage certificate filed in the Ministry with the father’s name on it. He was married to a Muggle woman three years before Laura was born and, due to the Statute of Secrecy, he had to file it with us, even if he wouldn’t tell her the truth. Then there was a birth certificate filed for a boy the next year. His name was Harlow. The marriage was dissolved a year later.”  
  
“Why?” Harry asked, intrigued by the story.  
  
“Well, we’re speculating at this point, but there are a few options.” Draco touched the edge of his desk and the same soft blue glow that Harry saw under Draco’s feet as he walked around outside emanated from the top. It drew away from the edges, culminating into a moving mass in the corner of the desk and then sat there. “Darken the window,” he said and leaned to the side to open a drawer. The blue form flattened and thinned until it became a sharp blue line that streaked across and down the desk. It made its way across what Harry recognised as an invisible grid-like pattern on the ground until it got to the window. As it whizzed rapidly across the glass, the movement of the department outside was blocked as the window turned black.  
  
Harry was staring at it, stunned, until Draco dropped a folder onto his desk. Harry’s wide-eyed stare wasn’t unnoticed. Draco seemed to be waiting for him to speak. “What… How did you-?”  
  
Draco cocked an eyebrow and smirked. “If I don’t get to learn about your magic, Potter, you’re sure as hell not learning about mine.”  
  
Harry hated him all over again. The curiosity was burning him even as the blue line streaked back across Malfoy’s desk and formed that abstract blob again, bobbing sedately on the desk next to Draco’s hand. Draco simply sat, the glow lighting the side of his face and waited. Like he  _knew_  exactly how to get a rise out of him. And, if Harry thought about it, with their history, he was probably right. When Harry didn’t say anything else, Draco simply shrugged and continued. Tossing the folder forward so it slid across the desk to Harry, he said, “Harlow Madley was left at an orphanage ten months after he was born. He bounced around more than a dozen foster homes from his infancy until he became a legal adult. He was then institutionalised with Muggle mind healers for a short period before he disappeared from all records. He turned up a few weeks ago with that man.”  
  
Harry pulled out the picture Draco gestured to. “Which one is he? How do you know it’s him?”  
  
“Next page.”  
  
Harry turned to the next page. Two newspaper articles were fastened together at the top corners with a sticking charm. The first was a print from the News of the World. It had two inset pictures; one of a painting, a landscape with a bench on it. The other was of an empty wall surrounded by the Met Police. On the wall in bright red paint – at least he hoped it was paint – was written  _ **THINK ON YOUR SINS**_  Harry turned to the next article. It was from the Daily prophet. A picture of the same wall, but this time the Met Police were moving around.  **MEETING PLACE STOLEN**  was the caption under the picture.  
  
“Meeting Place?”  
  
Draco nodded. “Our culture’s biggest ‘in plain sight’ secret. His fingerprints, what Muggles use to identify each other, were found on the wall.”  
  
Harry stared at the empty landscape and old wooden bench on the country lane. He chose not to inform Malfoy that he knew what fingerprints were. “I don’t understand. Why this painting?”  
  
“Our portraits are used mainly to gather intelligence and pass on information. Even at school our locations and activities are all reported via portrait if a teacher is not nearby. Every wizarding portrait in the Muggle world has a twin at the Ministry on the Minister’s wall and each of their Muggle counterparts have been stolen. The only other portrait that they could enter that wasn’t their own, ‘the Meeting Place,’ has been taken too. From what we’ve gathered they’ve all been placed in a dark area so none of them can see what is going on or where they are. Whoever he’s in contact with knows about us, and he’s likely one of us.”  
  
“I’ve seen people in portraits move from one frame to another.”  
  
“Only if they are based on the solution magical portraits are coated in. Even then, it’s only possible if they’re in the same room with a point of contact on the wall.” Harry nodded. “Just know, we donated it to the Royals’ Collection, the only stipulation was that it had to be displayed in a place where people could see it, but not touch it. In 1824, when the National Gallery was first opened, it was placed there.”  
  
Harry smiled. “How do they explain it?”  
  
Draco responded in kind. “They don’t have to. We’ve never had to use it. Besides, it’s a Constable.” When Harry raised his head in surprise Draco smirked. “It’s a country lane in Dedham Vale where he lived. He painted it for us in 1797 just after his twenty-first birthday.” He sat back. “The man on the left in the first picture is the Secretary to the Prime Minister of England. That’s how we know who is who.”  
  
Harry shuffled the papers until he held the picture in his hand. “That’s the Secretary?”  
  
“Mmm, amazing, you know John Constable but not Gavin Williamson. There have been minor thefts all over the Wizarding World the last couple of weeks. Art has gone missing all over the place, mostly portraits, magical ones and always from a pair that has one of the set in the Muggle world. One of the most recent being ‘The Announcer’ in 10 Downing Street. It wasn’t until the ‘Meeting Place’ was taken yesterday that we realised what was going on.  
  
Harry would like to know himself. “What  _is_  going on?”  
  
Draco rolled his eyes. “He’s taking away our sense of safety. We’ve always been able to monitor Muggles. Portraits were our way to do that.” When Harry nodded, Draco continued Madley’s profile. “He’s an orphan, abandoned at the age when a probable witch or wizard shows their first signs of magic. His father left and his Muggle mother committed suicide not long after. He’s been moved from one home to another, never settling, each foster home giving the same excuses: ‘uncontrollable’, ‘abnormal’ and ‘strange behaviour’.”  
  
Harry recognised those adjectives. He’d always been torn between loving how the strange things that happened to him always benefitted him and angry that he was cursed with it, always wondering why he couldn’t just be normal. How his life would be perfect if whatever it was that haunted him would just  _go away_.  
  
Harry raised his head from where he’d been staring at Harlow Madley’s picture.  
  
 _He wants it to go away._  Then he frowned. “But his magic won’t just go away.”  
  
If Draco was thrown by the sudden change in topic, he didn’t show it. “No. But he can help to make  _us_  go away. He can expose us. All he has to do is make it believable. It’s the only way to make it stick. We’re tracking Williamson, he’s Madley’s accomplice, though evidence shows that there is someone else too, someone likely working in the Ministry of Magic. We can’t trust many people, especially now. It’s your job today to bring Williamson in.”  
  
“Why not bring him in sooner?”  
  
Draco shook his head. “He would have been missed, plus we needed definitive proof and for him to lead us to our suspect.”  
  
“You couldn’t find him yourself?”  
  
“Wild magic can’t be traced.”  
  
Harry’s curiosity burned even more, but he figured that was a lesson best saved for another time. “And now?”  
  
Draco shrugged. “Desperate times.” He stood. “You need to get ready. One of the techs can sort you out. When you’re ready, come and see me.”

 

 

*******

  
  
Harry stood in the midst of the department floor. People were moving all around him. Malfoy had told him he needed a disguise.  _Word of the Wizarding Saviour can pass to all ears that listen hard enough_ , he’d said. Harry rolled his eyes. The blond had left him standing alone and buggered off to his station in the centre of the room, monitoring the feed on the largest screen on the wall in front of his rounded desk. The small blob of blue was moving about on the desk shaping itself around the blond’s hands if he moved them and passing through any documents or items there without knocking them over.  
  
Merlin, he wanted to understand this place so badly.  
  
“You okay?” His attention snapped to the short woman who’d stopped in her trek across the main floor.  
  
“Er,” Harry said feeling like an idiot. “I was told I needed a disguise.”  
  
Her face lit with recognition. “Oh, that’s bio-transfiguration, you can ask one of the M-techs over there.”  
  
Harry looked into the corner the woman pointed. It was underneath the raised first floor of the department and partially under Draco’s office. There was a group of wizards debating next to a mannequin. “M-tech?” he asked, puzzled. He’d find out about the mannequin soon enough, he supposed.  
  
She nodded. “Mmm - oh, erm, the official title is Branch Technician but we go by our specialities on the Ops and R&D floor, which is magical technician,” she explained when it was clear Harry was way out of his depth. “Though, your teammates in the Unspeakables prefer to believe m stands for minion.”  
  
She thought he was an Unspeakable. He was flattered. He decided not to dissuade her of the notion. “Minion? Why?”  
  
“Is there a reason ‘Gavin Williamson’ is not up on my frame?” they heard called out sharply behind them and turned to see Draco staring everyone down. The room had quieted a little. “What am I shelling out all those Christmas bonuses for?” The blond looked put out and huffed. “No love for any of you this year if his status isn’t on-frame in ten seconds!” he said seriously.  
  
The M-tech gave Harry a rueful grin when the man turned back to her, drawn by her quiet laughter when ‘Gavin Williamson’s’ status came up on-frame in a record breaking five seconds. Behind them Draco’s,  _Finally. You’ll see my love soon, I promise. Now, get me a predicted location to send my operative and you may get paid vacation,_  made even Harry smile. “Because it’s quite obvious to everyone, but our boss, that we’re working for an evil genius.” With a shrug, the M-tech moved away to help fulfil Draco’s order.

 

 

*******

  
  
Harry wanted it all.  
  
Well, maybe not what they’d done to the mannequin, since it was smoking and charred. Not sure he wanted to go over there at all really.  
  
The disc tracker he knew and loved was there, as part of his kit, though it was smaller and thinner than the ones in his department. On the desk, in front of the M-tech working to fit a wand holster on his forearm, there was a frame much smaller than the ones on the wall, propped up on a thick tome and the M-tech was scrolling through it like he was referencing something.  _They’ve created magic run tablets_  he thought to himself excitedly.  _Amazing_.  
  
“Too tight?” the M-tech asked him, snapping him out of his thoughts.  
  
Harry shook his head. “It’s fine.”  
  
“Good.” He let go. “Put your wand in.” Harry resisted the urge to smirk and did as he was told. As soon as the wand slid into place, the entire holster – wand and all – disappeared. Reverently, Harry ran his hand over his arm, sure he would still be able to feel it.  
  
Nothing.  
  
“Oh man. I got to get me one of these.”  
  
“You don’t have them upstairs?” the M-tech asked him. Harry shook his head, still running his hand up and down. “Odd. Our holsters are standard issue in the Department of Mysteries.”  
  
Harry paused. Unspeakables had these? Of course they did, what a stupid question. “So, where do I fill out a requisition form, then?” he joked.  
  
The M-tech chuckled. “I almost wish you could. I miss reactions like yours. Unspeakables act as if it’s all their due now. Bastards, the lot of them.”  
  
Harry was confused at the general outlook the CMI had on unspeakables, since no one in the department seemed to like them. Harry didn’t understand where that came from. Unspeakables were what aurors aspired to be eventually. They were the pipe dream.  
  
“You’re drooling, Potter.”  
  
Harry snapped out of it and turned to find Draco standing and staring at him oddly. He held up his arm. “Nifty.”  
  
Draco narrowed his eyes. “Three months of hard work went into that Potter, come up with better praise when you get your next set.”  
  
Harry looked down. “Is this it?” He eyed the disc and his arm. “A tracker and a holster?”  
  
Draco crossed his arms, unimpressed. “The tracker also serves as a beacon if you get into trouble. We can find you anywhere when you depress the centre.”  
  
“It’s not exactly Christmas, is it?”  
  
“You were expecting something that explodes?” He eyed Harry’s figure like he was taking mental measurements. “It would have to be small, unassuming and easily ignored. A quill, perhaps?” he joked.  
  
Harry looked up to meet Draco’s eyes. “You can do that?”  
  
Draco rolled his eyes. “You’re going to apprehend a suspect, a dignitary at best. I hardly think you’ll need to blow something up.” Harry sat back, slouching in his position on the workshop bench. “Typical Gryffindor, always with the drama.” Draco stood in front of Harry, his authority pouring off him in waves. “Go to Central London, pick up the Secretary. If there is nary a scratch on him…. We’ll talk.”  
  
Harry tried to tamper his inner child. He didn’t think it worked very well when Draco shook his head and walked off.

 

 

*******

  
  
The Secretary was not a quiet man that was for sure. Fortunately there were charms for that.  
  
Currently, he was in a room with an interrogator, shouting at the man about his title, that they couldn’t keep him here and demanding to see their superior. Harry snorted derisively from behind the darkened one way glass. “As if.” He looked at Draco to see if he shared his view. The blond was staring at the Secretary closely. “Malfoy-”  
  
“Charles,” the blond man said instead of answering and the mousy haired man Harry had taken to naming ‘minion one’ based on how often Malfoy seemed to call on him – came up to his side.  
  
“Sir,” was the prompt reply.  
  
“Get me the Statute of Secrecy, the section with Muggle Government Officials. Send it down with Blue.” Charles dismissed himself with an affirmative ‘Sir,’ and left. Harry watched him go. It seemed to be the only word the man ever said. He wondered if that was on purpose. Malfoy ran a tight ship.  
  
“Care to share?” he asked.  
  
Draco was still surveying the red-faced man behind the glass. His eyes narrowed at Harry’s question. Harry could see the cogs turning. “Not yet, Potter.”  
  
“Who’s Blue?” Harry asked instead.  
  
Draco was saved from answering by the glass in front of them spider-webbing with blue lines similar to the grid pattern Harry had seen on the floor and glass wall in Draco’s office. They coalesced, gathering together closer until they had no choice but to rise away from the glass. It stretched towards Draco, peeling back when the blond smiled and patted it like a pet to reveal it had been carrying a scroll. “Thank you.” He unrolled it and began to read through the section Charles had sent him, ignoring Harry’s obvious staring at the blue mass bobbing and weaving perpendicular to the glass.  
  
He leaned closer to it as Draco absorbed himself in the text. “Seriously, what are you?” Harry said quietly, trying not to disturb the blond, but wanting to poke it so badly. His eyes widened when the mass seemed to turn to him, acknowledging his presence. It shifted closer to Draco as if sensing Harry’s intentions, the edge of it slipping past Draco’s jumper and ruffling the crease. It was the first time Harry saw it affect something it touched, as it usually passed through everything else.  
  
Seriously. Poke it with a stick.  
  
The – amazingly sentient – blob was turning a shade of dark blue. Again, it shifted closer to Draco. The blond batted it away when it stirred his hair as if trying to get his attention. Harry marvelled at it.  _Is it sentient?_  he wondered. His eyes went from man to mass, the latter of which was turning a serious shade of purple now.  
  
Belatedly, as if in reaction, Harry could feel the stirrings of his own magic ebbing and flowing under his skin, as if it had been doing so for a while, daring itself to reach out and ‘poke’. He took a step back and scratched at the itch in his right hand. That side usually spilled first, it being his dominant hand. His gaze rose from his palm to the dark glass and the purple marbled mass moving around as if hiding from him and frowned. Was it reacting to his magic?  
  
“Huh,” he heard Draco say and stood straight as the blond turned. It was like an ice bucket of water. It somehow felt perverse that his magic was causing a small sentient thing to be afraid of him. He even hid his hand behind his back. Naturally, it was the first thing Draco picked up on. “What are you doing?”  
  
“Nothing,” Harry said too fast.  
  
“Uh huh.” Draco turned to the glass and handed Harry the scroll. “Paragraph six.”  
  
Harry took it, the residual itch of his magic prickling his skin, but not nearly as overwhelming as before. He chanced a glance at ‘Blue’ as Malfoy called him. It was back to the soft light blue that moved serenely. Draco was twirling a finger in it, like he was playing with it, not noticing Harry watching them together.  
  
Most likely because he was supposed to be reading. Right.  
  
He read through the sixth paragraph quickly. He saw the words, but didn’t understand what he was reading. “Lovely,” he said, looking up at the blond who was now staring once more at the irate politician’s secretary. “And in English for the layman?”  
  
Draco snorted. “It’s the Statute of Secrecy, well – part of it. It’s the agreement drafted and signed by the original members of the first senate and pertains to the limited members of the Muggle world who  _have_  to know about us to facilitate our continuance. That includes the Prime Minister now and his immediate subordinates. They are sworn in one week after they enter office and are usually given a brief rundown of our Ministry system. Basic hierarchy. They are directed to ask directly for the Minister should anything happen.”  
  
Harry waited. “Okay, and?”  
  
Draco rolled his eyes. “Well, he’s not asking for the Minister, is he?” he gestured with his head towards the silently fuming man. Harry looked again into the room surrounded by glass. Gavin Williamson was glaring at the CMI Department Interrogator. He tried to remember what the man had been shouting before Draco had touched the glass and asked for silence. He shut his eyes.  
  
 _Interrogators do not frighten me!_  The man had said, clearly pale.  _I will speak to this CMI superior of yours at once!_  he’d added, staring at the badge the interrogator wore. Harry fingered his own. Unlike the others that had titles, his was simply the crest of the department in metal and set into a square of leather to hang around his neck on a thin metal chain. Harry felt like a Muggle police officer. He’d grinned when it was presented to him by Charles upon his return.  
  
“Our department members must wear identification badges at all times so that they can enter or exit any part of the three floors.” He turned to Harry and leaned against the glass wall. Absently Harry noticed Blue sinking into the glass to become those intense streaks of light again. Where Draco touched the glass the density of the lines were stronger. They spider-webbed into transparent beams the further they went. “He’s not asking for the Minister, Potter.” The blond turned his head to the side to look into the room. “He’s asking for me.”

 

 

*******

  
  
“No.”  
  
Draco rolled his eyes. “Kingsley-”  
  
The Minister of Magic was having none of it. “No. No! Absolutely not. I refuse to deliver one of our best assets to be identified by a terrorist’s potential accomplice. The mere fact that you brought him down here in the first place when we have perfectly good holding cells in the DMLE is beyond my reasoning.” He shook his head in disappointment. “Why didn’t you send him upstairs?”  
  
“Aurors ask too many questions?”  
  
Kingsley scoffed. “That’s what obliviators are for.” He turned to the lone M-tech that had brought him downstairs to their holding room. “Get an obliviator sent down here, we’re moving Williamson to the fifth floor.” The M-tech chanced a glance at his department head. Kingsley became incensed, stepping in to break his line of sight. When the M-tech’s eyes angled upwards to stare at him, eyes wide, Kingsley boomed, “HE WORKS FOR ME! GO!” He punctuated his statement by thrusting his arm out to point at the door. The M-tech startled and practically ran out.  
  
Draco heaved a sigh. “He was new. Must you frighten them like that? I barely have them house trained as it is.”  
  
Kingsley ignored Draco’s attempt at humour. It showed exactly how angry the man was. Instead, he turned to Harry. “You will take him home. Stay there and bring him in tomorrow. Alive. Do you hear me?”  
  
Draco looked positively scandalised. “I beg your pardon? I do not need to be babysat by an auror!” He exclaimed.  
  
His protest went ignored too. “Alive, Harry.”  
  
Harry knew these moods. Had seen them during tough cases before Kingsley won the election, when he was the head of the DMLE. Nothing he said would get Kingsley to change his mind. Not now. However, seeing the distress the blond was under, felt he should at least attempt a token protest. “Sir, I really don’t think-”  
  
“I have the Secretary to the  _Prime Minister of England_  in a holding cell,” Kingsley boomed, interrupting him with a severely pissed off expression. “And that same Secretary is a known acquaintance of an active terrorist threat to the Wizarding World. And he is not following protocol by asking for its leader, Harry, he is asking for the Head of Department for a department he’s  _not even supposed to know exists_ ,” he stressed glaring at Draco. When the blond didn’t react, just faced away from him, Kingsley continued. “Your job here, Potter, is not to think. It is to  _do_.” Kingsley glared at Draco again. “I have enough thinkers as I can handle.” When Draco turned away from him shaking his head, unable to even look at him, his gaze returned to Harry. “Just do your job.”  
  
Harry let out a quiet sigh and nodded once. He felt like a scolded child. “Yes, Sir.”  
  
Kingsley nodded, his breath coming hard in his anger as he left the room. The silenced stretched a few moments before Draco finally sighed. On the other side of the glass, Williamson glared at nothing, his eyes moving from one black glass wall to another.  
  
“We might as well go, then. We’re not going to get anything out of Williamson until he’s moved upstairs and the state Kingsley’s in right now, I’m not getting any answers until tomorrow.” He turned around to the brunet. “Is there anything you need to do upstairs? If there is, you should do it now. It’s been a long day for you, I’d bet.”  
  
Harry actually laughed. “It has. Can’t lie about that.” He thought about his department upstairs. Kingsley said he’d be a part of the team down here in the CMI. No one had stated how long it would be, but even with the little amount of time he’d spent down here he could see himself taking a permanent position. “I have an overnight bag upstairs. We’re told to keep them ready at all times in case we have to stay somewhere.”  
  
Draco nodded. “Our operatives are told the same. Go ahead. Meet me in my office when you come back.”  
  
 _Come back_. Harry would very much like to. “Will I be able to get back in?” he joked.  
  
Draco smirked. “Only if you hurry.”

 

 

*******

  
  
“Harry, mate!”  
  
Harry paused from picking up his bag under his desk. He’d hoped to get in and out with little to no questions. It was getting into the late afternoon shift and with Williamson coming upstairs he was hoping for the shift change and arrival of a new apprehended suspect to keep everyone busy for a bit. Joking as Draco was, he was right. Aurors did ask a lot of questions.  
  
“Hey, Ron.”  
  
“Where’ve you been all day? Wormwell’s been silent since Kingsley took you upstairs.” Ron was curious, Harry could tell, but he could also see an element of worry in the blue eyes of his best friend.  
  
Edward Wormwell was the Head of Department sworn into the DMLE when Kingsley Shacklebolt was voted into office. He was a good man from what Harry had seen the last few years. He was no Shacklebolt, but no one could blame him for that. Although, the fact that he was being tight lipped about what Harry was absent for made him wonder. Did he know about the secret department just three floors down? Was he lying to his own people?  
  
He thought about Draco’s department, about the grinning M-tech minions and their devotion to their evil genius of a boss. He thought about all they did with no recognition or praise, about how often Harry’s own team in the DMLE used the CMI’s technology with no knowledge of where it came from. The CMI kept the Ministry safe, but only as long as the secret department was left alone to get on with their jobs.  
  
He hated what he was about to do. “Not doing anything major. Wormwell’s been on my case to take my vacation time. Employee Support has been hounding him for us to stop hoarding our off days. It’s making a mess of their numbers. He decided to start with me. Make an example of the Chosen One.” It was almost amazing how easy that rolled off the tongue.  
  
Ron was laughing, falling for it. “So he waited until we solved the big case to go to the Minister to force you to take the time off?”  
  
Harry laughed. He held up his bag. “I am to vacate the premises for at least a week and if I come in before that time I will be fired on sight.” He laughed with him.  
  
“Well, I’d say I feel sorry for you, but I use my days like a regular person. I don’t have many left. If anything, I envy you.”  
  
Harry shrugged. “I’m going to take off before I’m thrown out or escorted.” He grinned when Ron winced at the terminology. “Gonna hole myself up for a few days, bored out of my mind, and then maybe think of raiding your pantry when you’re not home.”  
  
Ron rolled his eyes. “We’ve got a new case brewing, so the only one you’re likely to see at home is Hermione. Tell her I miss her, yeah?” he joked.  
  
Harry snorted and patted him on the shoulder. “Will do. I’ll catch you later.” He walked off to the lift and looked around before pressing the button to go down instead of up. He stepped in and eyed the blue button he had never noticed before. Just earlier this morning, he’d seen Kingsley tap a blank part of the metal there. Harry shook his head and blew out a short breath from his nose.  
  
How things changed in just under a day. He should be used to things like this by now.

 

 

*******

  
  
He’d called out ‘Draco Malfoy’s Living Room’. What he’s got was a bare empty space with Draco Malfoy standing in the centre looking at him worriedly. Seconds later, he realised why.  
  
It was icy cold, numbing, and he could barely feel anything. Warm fingers held his head as he bent forward and he could distantly hear Draco telling him to focus on his voice, telling him to calm down.  
  
“What-” he managed to get out. He sounded choked, like he was being suffocated.  
  
“It’s the binding. It’ll pass, you just need to let it happen.” There was a sigh. “My own fault, completely forgot to warn you. I live in a null.” Not able to speak very well, Harry just look up at him in confusion. “It’s negative space. Magic, just like nature, has positive and negative spaces. Places where magic thrives, and small areas where it cannot thrive at all. This is one of them. Magic does not live here and all who enter cannot use it. Your magic is being bound. I’m used to it so I can floo straight in. I should have taken you a mile out and walked you in, it would have been easier on you. I apologise for that.” He looked compassionate, enough that Harry believed him. The blond obviously knew how it felt by now and could relate.  
  
His heart rate was slowing down, and Harry could feel the calm Draco was trying to get him to feel slowly settle. “You – you live like this every day?”  
  
Slowly Draco nodded, ensuring Harry was okay before he let him go. “It’s a precaution I take for my well-being.” He stood up and dusted off his knees. “Much like this place.”  
  
Harry looked around, realising he was on his knees too. He hadn’t even noticed. He stood stiffly, accepting the hand Draco gave him and looked around. “Where are we?”  
  
Draco snorted and clapped some dust from his hand. “Not my living room.”  
  
Harry stopped looking about and focused on the blond. “No?”  
  
“Oh no. We’re two miles from my actual home.”  
  
“Another precaution.” Draco nodded. Harry sighed and dusted off his own knees before swiping his bag from where it had fallen. He stood, shook his head to clear the cobwebs and gestured to the door. “Then by all means.” Draco smirked and took off digging in his pocket as he walked. As Harry stepped outside and onto the street beyond, he looked up and down at the shop fronts he could see surrounding them on both sides. “Where are we actually? Area-wise, I mean.”  
  
“Westbury,” Draco said locking the door behind them. He switched keys and turned to the street, stepping down to meet Harry. “I left home, but couldn’t leave the area. I liked it too much.”  
  
“Westbury?”  
  
Draco rolled his eyes. “Wiltshire.” He sighed. “Malfoy Manor is about twelve miles that way.” He pointed east.  
  
“Oh.” Harry didn’t really have much else to say about that.  
  
Draco rolled his eyes again and gestured to the car in front of them. “Get in.” The car alarm disarmed with a press of the remote in Draco’s hand.  
  
“You can drive?”  
  
The blond cocked an eyebrow. “Did you want to walk the two miles? I’m fine with that, but you may feel different in the morning.” He got in anyway and the engine turned over, starting with a growl.  
  
Harry was still staring, but he opened the door and slid in cautiously. When the door shut, he looked across at a man he wasn’t sure he knew anymore. “Do you have a licence?”  
  
Draco actually smiled as he put on his seatbelt. “Would it make you feel better if I said yes?”  
  
“Immensely,” Harry said before Draco even finished speaking.  
  
Draco grinned. “Put on your seatbelt.”  
  
Harry reached up for it. “That doesn’t inspire confidence.”  
  
With a laugh as he put the car in gear, “It’s not supposed to. It’s the law.”  
  
The drive was smooth. Harry didn’t know why he was surprised. Draco drove like he’d been doing it for years, with an easy confidence no wizard could fake. Even Ron, when he’d driven his father’s car, had been haphazard at best. And that car could fly. There was far less to crash into in the sky. The drive was also short. It would have taken time if they’d walked and Harry was glad they hadn’t. Draco was right. He would have regretted it in the morning.  
  
Just up ahead, there was a turn off into a cul-de-sac. The group of houses were prettily surrounded by trees. He could understand the appeal of living here, even if he couldn’t use magic all the time.  
  
He focused on it. With his agitated state of unknowing, he should be feeling its desperation to come out. He should be aching with the need to let it out, even on something small like a  _lumos_. The light would burn brighter than most, but it would take the edge off.  
  
He didn’t feel anything.  
  
It was like when he was a boy. There was something there, like a companion inside, but he couldn’t reach it. Not yet. For the first time in years he didn’t have to worry about leakage. It had hurt people in his building before while he slept. His nightmares were the devil and his magic was only trying to protect him, so he couldn’t fault it. It was why he’d moved to a house in the middle of nowhere, after all. The greenery around his house was beautiful for all the extra magic that seeped into them. He remembered once cutting down his rose bush in a fit of frustration during a case. He’d woken up the next day after a bout of nightmares and walked out preparing to  _Apparate_  to work, only to see a veritable tree of roses climbing up the side of his home to his bedroom window. It was beautiful. Foreboding and scary as hell, but beautiful.  
  
None of that could happen here and just the thought alone… that he couldn’t hurt anyone, and that he didn’t have to fear an accident…  
  
It was wonderful.

 

 

*******

  
  
It was also frustrating.  
  
Harry hadn’t noticed, but since all this time with his magic doing things for him (without him needing to ask or with ridiculous Latin phrases), he’d got lazy.  
  
He sighed to himself after waiting for a few seconds for the towel he wanted to be in his hands without him grabbing for it. It was funny, in a way, that he was doing this when Draco was accustomed to it after so many years of being without every evening. He’d seen the man enter the kitchen after the brief tour to make something to eat and directed Harry to the bathroom in the meantime.  
  
When he got out, there was a wonderful smell that Harry followed downstairs. He bypassed the living room – the real one – in the open plan of the bottom floor and entered the kitchen to find Draco placing his stove on low under whatever smelled good in the pot. He leaned against the cupboards to watch the blond stir what was in there and said, “What’s for dinner?”  
  
Draco turned his head to look over his shoulder. “Soup. Nothing special.”  
  
Harry’s eyebrows raised. “Doesn’t smell like nothing special.”  
  
Draco put a lid slanted on the top and put the pot spoon in the sink. “It’ll be about ten minutes. Watch it for me, I’ll be right back.” Harry nodded as he disappeared upstairs.  
  
Harry looked around with more curiosity than he’d shown during his tour. Without Draco there to watch him, he allowed himself the freedom to linger over things that caught his eyes, like the still photographs of people he didn’t recognise on the walls and the books in the shelf next to the floo-less fireplace. He stood in the middle of the living-room looking around and simply shook his head.  
  
Draco Malfoy, Slytherin and ex-Death Eater, was living as a Muggle in the south west Muggle countryside.  
  
He’d laugh if he felt he would be able to stop.  
  
“You look far away.”  
  
Harry spun in place. He hadn’t even heard the man on the stairs. “Just marvelling. I didn’t expect this when I was sent here.”  
  
Draco walked past him into the kitchen. “I didn’t expect you at all.”  
  
“You said you weren’t surprised, though.”  
  
“I wasn’t,” Draco said reaching up for two bowls from the cupboard to his right. “Not really. But I’ve been running my department for seven years now. I expected you, but after a while I gave up on it being immediate. You’re arrival was inevitable, and like all inevitable things they are expected, but still surprising at the time they actually happen.”  
  
Harry smiled and sat down waiting for a pyjama clad Slytherin to hand him home-made soup from his kitchen in the Muggle country-side. He was officially in the twilight zone.  
  
“Do you know how long you’ll be with us?” Draco asked him, blowing on his spoon to cool the liquid there.  
  
Harry shook his head. “I don’t know. Kingsley asked me to join your team based on my magic. I‘m not sure if it’s something you are all looking for, or if you just want me in as an active consult. Do you have your own people in the field?”  
  
Draco nodded. “A few. We’re mainly intelligence, but every now and again we have to send someone out to get it. People with specific skill sets.” He shrugged. “We mingle with the unspeakables, but we try to keep that to a minimum.”  
  
“Why’s that?” he asked sensing a story.  
  
Draco shrugged again, playing it off as nothing. “The less people know about us the better.”  
  
“But they’re unspeakables. The epitome of secrecy.”  
  
Draco cocked an eyebrow, “And yet, with them being the ‘epitome of secrecy’, you know all about them.” Harry paused. He hadn’t thought about it that way. “Merlin, Potter. It’s a good thing you’re pretty, that’s all I can say to that.” He went back to eating.  
  
Harry sat back in his chair. Draco didn’t want to talk about it. Fine. He’d talk about something else. “So what is it about my magic, besides it being wild, that made you bring me in?”  
  
Draco paused. “Well, not you specifically, but that it is you is very helpful.”  
  
“Why’s that?”  
  
“Because I actually know you and what you don’t tell me, I can fill in the blanks.”  
  
Harry huffed. “Really?” he said with disbelief.  
  
Draco stopped eating, his arms bracketing his bowl. He tilted his head to the side curiously. “Tell me. Why is it every time we question you about your magic you get uncomfortable? That tells me one of two things. You aren’t confident about it, which is bullshit because I have read and heard countless reports on how ‘wonderful’ and ‘awesome’ your magic can be and how excellent your aim is.”  
  
“I was using my wand-”  
  
“No you weren’t.” Draco smirked. “Your average aim percentage in training was less than eighty-six percent, post-training it rose, but was still below your in-field standing. If you can explain that with anything but the ridiculous excuse of luck you’ve been getting away with, I challenge you to try.”  
  
“It was luck.”  
  
“For six plus years? I don’t think so, Potter. Especially since a lot of the reports are edited by members of your team and after submission by one Hermione Granger-Weasley to make sure any evidence of your wandlessness is erased from public view.”  
  
“What?” Harry asked scandalised.  
  
Draco cocked his head to the side. “Chain of command with paperwork for potential operatives. All original reports that are submitted come to us first, not your department head. We need to know the truth about our people. And no amount of erasing and rewriting can change that.”  
  
Harry’s mouth was open. He closed it quickly when he realised. “How long has this been going on?”  
  
Draco smiled. “How long have you been an auror?” He pushed his empty bowl back. “Finish your soup.” He waited for Harry to pick up his spoon again. “The reason we wanted someone like you is because we needed someone who thinks like Harlow. We need to know motive, because that is a good prediction of future behaviour.” Draco leaned on his forearms. “Kingsley brought you in because your histories are similar enough to predict everything else. Past behaviour, comfort zones, interpersonal activity – and I agree with his choice.”  
  
“Why?”  
  
“Since you came into my department you have expressed a level of desperate curiosity I have never seen in anyone else, except Muggleborns. A sort of childlike reaction to things they don’t understand, a constant back and forth between wariness and infatuation.” The blond watched him knowingly from across the kitchen table. “You want to know about Blue, but your discomfort with discussing your own magic has hindered you from finding out since I set my terms this afternoon.” His eyes narrowed in a knowing pleasure. “It’s killing you, isn’t it?” he taunted.  
  
Harry’s jaw worked. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”  
  
Draco burst out laughing. “Oh, Merlin will strike you down for telling lies like that, Potter.” He shook his head fondly. “The only thing I wanted to know was if you had trouble learning control and how long it took you, if your training at Hogwarts helped or hindered that.”  
  
“Why?”  
  
“Because it can give me a time range. You were both born the same year. He would have been in our year if he had joined us. Unlike you, he never knew about the Wizarding World at all, only that he knew he was different in a way he couldn’t explain and when it came out and – maybe hurt people – he didn’t know how to make it stop or how to hide it. He was put into a Muggle Mind Healing hospital at one point and escaped before going to ground. There’s nothing after that for a few years until all of these thefts started occurring. The Muggle police are trying to pin two murders on him based on recognition of his fingerprints, but the people they say he killed were liaisons from our world. We can’t sentence him on those too unless we get our version of a fingerprint. His magical signature.”  
  
“But he’s stolen all of those things using magic.”  
  
“He did, yes, but wild magic can’t be traced.”  
  
“Mine is in the system.”  
  
“Yours with your  _wand_  is in the system. There’s a difference.” Harry was confused, Draco could see that. He took their empty bowls and placed them to the side. He thought for a moment. “This table. It’s brown, yes?” Harry nodded in bemusement, not sure where this was going. “And this bowl,” he said dragging Harry’s soup bowl across, “is brown too?”  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“It’s not a trick question.”  
  
“Well, I don’t know what’s going on?!”  
  
“Just answer or nod as I go.”  
  
“Fine, yes your bowl is brown.”  
  
“Good. Now the colour brown, in this case, is magic. The brown bowl is a magic user with a wand. If I was in the section of the DMLE searching for errant magic users, I would use the magic signature of ‘brown bowl’ to search for my suspect. You should recognise this as it’s the theory we put behind the Disc-Trackers your department use all the time.” Harry nodded. “Good. The signature would have been gathered from the point of purchase as every wand bought is registered with the Ministry.”  
  
Oh, well that made sense. “Okay..”  
  
“If I was searching for a person with no wand, I wouldn’t have a clue what to search for because wild magic that has no restraint in a wand is just magic itself. I can’t search for it because there are no parameters that separate it from places or things. There can be flares but they are instantaneous and difficult to track from inside the Ministry.”  
  
“So wild magic users are invisible to the Ministry?”  
  
“Wild magic users are invisible to everything. That’s why children with bouts of wild magic use are overlooked, because there’s nothing to look for and it’s never reported unless someone gets hurt. Just over a hundred years ago, a young child during Grindelwald’s days heard his father talking about the Unforgivables and, while playing with his sister, got upset and yelled out the killing curse at her.” He took in Harry’s horrified look. “That’s why we get wands, because we learn through negative examples that wild magic is bad if left unchecked.”  
  
Harry looked down at the table. “It is, though. When it’s not controlled.”  
  
“It can be, but I think your problem is more along the terms of quantity more than quality.” When Harry looked up at him, he gave him a reassuring smile. “You have a lot of it and it leaks when you don’t use it. I have a feeling we’ll get a repeat of this evening when we get back to the Ministry and it comes back to you.”  
  
Harry felt worried. “Will it hurt me?”  
  
Draco opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out, until, “It might, but you have a lot more than I do and most of mine is in the building anyway. You just have to remember it’s yours and not fight when it returns.”  
  
Harry nodded solemnly, until he realised what he’d heard. “What do you mean your magic is  _in_  the building?!”  
  
Draco laughed. “Wondered if you’d catch that,” he said picking up their bowls and putting them in the sink to wash them.  
  
“Well I caught it. What the hell does it mean?” He was fed up of this mystery. “Does this have to do with Blue?”  
  
Draco’s head nodded once in concession. “In part. He is more a side effect, you could say.”  
  
“From what?”  
  
Draco turned after he put them on the drying rack. “My recruitment.”

 

 

*******

  
  
“It was just after my trial, when everything I did to help the Dark Lord came out. I was pardoned with community service and probation for two years once you testified for me. I was leaving to go back to the holding cells when Kingsley Shacklebolt came up to me. He said he was running for office and that he wanted to make some changes. Said he’d heard about the things I did.” Draco chuckled wryly. “I thought he was talking about my helping the Death Eaters into the school. I was right, but only partly.” He sighed. “He was talking about the vanishing cabinet. Said it was a wondrous thing I did and asked if I could do it with anything else.” He came out of his memory and looked at Harry properly. “It sounds weird doesn’t it? It did to me. I was so confused. Anyway, he said if I could, he’d see if I could spend my community service working for him. I asked if it was for something in his campaign. He said it was much better than that.  
  
“For the next six months I was part of a group that were like me, out of school, out of work – out of place, really. We had nowhere to go and nothing to make of ourselves with the stigma of the war over our heads. We were tasked, individually, with a single job. To enhance our monitoring system. It was outdated and relied mainly upon paperwork.”  
  
“Who was the team?” Harry questioned.  
  
Draco smiled. “Myself, Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott.”  
  
Harry’s eyebrows rose. “I didn’t see them.”  
  
Draco shook his head. “I was on my own today. Theo and I have been holding down the fort since Blaise is on leave for two weeks. Theo called in sick so I was alone today.”  
  
“Oh. Wow.”  
  
“Yeah. Blaise’s mum wasn’t a supporter of the war, but he was turned down for every job he applied for and Theo was a marked Death Eater that committed no actual crime besides the tattoo on his arm.” He laughed. “We were a match made in heaven. Blaise always loved paperwork, and now he’s the head of our admin staff. Theo was our tinkerer, taught me much of what I know. And I loved to plan, but I dabbled in magic work a bit too. We had found a way to enhance our system when Theo got a girlfriend. A Muggle one, go figure. He came back to us with stories of the Muggle world, said that for all their lack of magic, they got by with devices and technology that surpassed our own. We just had to bridge the gap. Theo found a way to create a system in the Ministry that filtered our knowledge around without people knowing, Blaise handled all our paperwork and intercepted admin that was of advantage to us and I found a way to boost the signal.”  
  
Harry frowned. “How?”  
  
Draco was silent for a moment. “When I was working on the vanishing cabinet, I put everything I could into it. When I made improvements I was excited, when I couldn’t work out logistics I was frustrated, got angry a lot. Wild magic, as you know, works off emotion-”  
  
Harry was surprised. Again. “You’re a wild magic user?”  
  
Draco snorted. “Not to the extent you’re thinking of.” He shook his head. “We all still have our wild magic, but most of us stop using it when we get a wand, if we ever learned to use it properly to begin with,” he added. “It’s like a language that your entire being can speak. If you stop speaking it, you forget how.” He rested his head on his hand. “Compared to you, I was at the level of simple greetings and swearing.” He smiled when Harry laughed at his joke.  
  
“So what about Blue?”  
  
Draco did laugh this time. “Blue was an accident. I was working on our main frame, couldn’t get it to work and I was so upset. I’d been in our work room – we were given a tiny cupboard of a workroom back then – for six days. I remember the election was four days away. It was the same as with the vanishing cabinet. I was doing all the right spells and charm work, I had all the components correct, but nothing I did was working. I thought it was the technology at first. Muggles, though they use science, they don’t have the inherent ability to use it like we do.”  
  
“Wait – what?” Harry exclaimed.  
  
“Science. You know what science is, don’t you?”  
  
“Of course I do.”  
  
“Right. Well, science comes from nature. Magic finds its roots in nature too. Muggles can manipulate science and so can we, but we have the ability to channel magic through us, therefore, we can do the same with their technology. Our world, for some reason, hadn’t figured that out yet.” He laughed. “It took two Death Eaters and a bookworm to figure it out in the end. Anyway,” he added, continuing his story. “I was frustrated because I wasn’t able to get the magic output right.” At Harry’s look, he explained. “Science – for us – is like magic, but down to its baser elements. It acts without restraint and so, for the scale of what we wanted to do, the magic used to kick start it would have to be unrestrained too. Problem was, I only knew the spell via my wand and anything I tried to do without it was laughable.”  
  
“So what did you do?”  
  
Draco grinned as he thought back. “I screamed.” Harry laughed haltingly. He hadn’t been expecting that. “Yeah – I screamed and I collapsed.” He nodded along with him, as if he too found it ridiculous and childish. “I woke up two days later in a private room in St Mungo’s with Blaise and Theo asleep on either side. I was told I was out of my mind and I had no recollection of what had happened that night.” He sighed. “But I was different. I could feel it.” He twisted around and took out a carton of juice from his fridge. “Bits and pieces came back when I went back to work, but the room we were in – I  _hated_  leaving it. I slept there a lot, it felt like… home,  _me_. It was a strange feeling.” He took a sip from the carton. “Thing is, magic came easier to me after my episode and I kept seeing flashes of blue light whenever I worked – on the walls, on the floor, the table. I fell asleep one night, still working on the bloody main frame when the blue light woke me up. I was fucking terrified,” he laughed. Wherever I moved, it moved too, like it was playing a game.” Harry listened, hearing how fond Draco’s voice sounded. “I thought I was going crazy, maybe having another episode or something. I didn’t tell Blaise or Theo and it never turned up when they were there, only when we were alone.”  
  
“So you created a companion?”  
  
Draco laughed. “Can’t create myself.” Harry was back to confused. “Ever heard of Spontaneous Wild Magic Eruption?”  
  
Harry shook his head. “Can’t say that I have.”  
  
“Hmm, you should have. It’s likely what’s been making you scared to fall asleep in your own room for years.” Harry just blinked wordlessly. “We’re phenomena, you and I. Blue is the embodiment of my wild magic that, in a fit of intense emotion, leaked out during my eruption and stayed outside of my person’.” The words sounded like he was recounting a line from a book. “I worked in that room for months using my magic consistently without break. All my screaming bouts, unknown to me, created leaks that gathered and pooled, which isn’t what magic is supposed to do. But then, wild magic never works like conventional magic, does it? After my hospital stay, I was still in there working and one night I got upset,  _again_ , and just yelled at the bloody frame to  _work damn it_.” He chuckled. “The room flashed blue and it started to fill with colour and magic and a live video of the shop across the street’s security camera,” he said simply. “It was at this point, I realised what it was about the room that made me feel so welcome there. When Blue made himself known on the desk next to Blaise’s hand, as if he was asking for approval, I clued in to what he was too. Blaise screamed that time,” he laughed.  
  
“You worked so constantly with your wild magic that it soaked itself into the walls when you exploded?”  
  
“A bit crass, but you have the basic idea.”  
  
“And Blue is you? He’s your magic?”  
  
“He is. We work together now, seamlessly. It took a while to get the hang of how he worked but yes, he is me – we are the same. Though Theo is the one who named him. He seems to like it. He answers to it, anyway.”  
  
Harry sat back. “Wow. And what is the mainframe?”  
  
Draco stared at him like was mental. “What do you mean?”  
  
“Is it like, what you call the system you created?”  
  
Draco still seemed confused. “Wait – what? The main frame is on the ops floor, you were staring at them like you wanted to eat them this afternoon.” He looked suspicious. “What have you been calling them?”  
  
Now Harry was confused too. “Okay. I’m getting to the bottom of this. Describe the mainframe to me.”  
  
Draco seemed dubious, but he played along. “It’s a group of seven portrait frames at the front of the ops floor. We use them all, but the one in the centre is the one we really call our main frame since it was the first one built. We created the other six after that one got working and, eventually, we were able – with a lot of work – to have them run together and then separate from each other if we needed them too. The three of us have smaller six by fours for interdepartmental communication, but mine is handled by Charles mostly. I’m almost always busy,” he added flippantly.  
  
Harry was flabbergasted. “You created those portrait frames?” It was all he was capable of saying at the moment.  
  
“I just said that.” Draco peered at him closely. “Are you alright? You look pale.”  
  
Harry couldn’t’ believe this. One of the most bigoted manipulative little shits he’d ever known in school was now an advocate of Muggle technology and his magic was on par with Harry’s, even if he couldn’t use it in the same way. He’d shared a history that – for obvious reasons – he’d kept to himself for a long time. Harry doubted even Nott or Zabini knew some of the things Draco had told him.  
  
“I once  _apparated_  onto my primary school roof when I was being chased by bullies,” he opened with. That seemed like a safe enough place to start. Draco seemed confused for a second, wondering about the non sequitur. Harry waited. Draco was smart after all, he’d figure out where he was going with this. When the blond’s eyes widened a little he nodded. “It was small things at first. Things would go missing in the fridge and turn up in my- room. Broken toys I was given would suddenly be fixed overnight,” he listed, watching as Draco got comfortable, stretching out his arms and laying his head in them. “My aunt shaved my hair off once when she couldn’t get it to behave, but left my fringe so the scar could be hidden.” He smiled when Draco’s mouth opened in astonishment. “I cried so hard. Knew I’d be bullied so badly when I went to school for picture day the next day. It grew back overnight.” Draco bit on his bottom lip.  
  
“Bet she didn’t like that.” He laughed. “What else?” Draco asked calmly.  
  
“I’d have nightmares. I’d be woken up because somehow all the appliances in the house had turned on. Got punished for that. Then my uncle found out it had happened to every house on our street. All the street lamps exploded as well. I got punished for that too.” He sighed. “It got better when I was in school, when I got a wand. The outbreaks didn’t happen that much.”  
  
“Probably because you were using your magic every day in class.”  
  
Harry nodded. “Probably.” He thought for a second. “They came back in fourth year though. I got bad nightmares, and the leakages, or spontaneous-whatever-you-said, happened more often. I started learning to control it in fifth year when I practically exploded all over the place, just after Dumbledore fought Voldemort at the Ministry.” He ignored Draco’s wince. “Got Moody to help the most, since he knew more about magic than a lot of us, especially defensive magic.”  
  
“Is that why you channel it more into defence than anything else?” Draco asked watching carefully how Harry stared at his hands almost like he was ashamed of them.  
  
Harry looked up, surprised by the question. “What do you mean?”  
  
Draco shrugged. “Well the only instances where it’s documented you use it most is in the field. Do you use it a lot, to that extent, at home?”  
  
Harry thought about it. “Erm, small things around the house, but not to the extent where I’m trying to save my life from a wet towel, no.”  
  
An errant chuckle escaped the blond at the visual. “Have you tried?”  
  
Harry was speechless for a second. “Honestly, I never thought about it.”  
  
Draco nodded. “You should. When I go back to work every day there is an initial ache under my skin as my magic comes back to me, like it can’t stand being restrained for so long and  _has_  to get out by any means necessary. Blue has taken to following me around to ease the tension.” He sighed loudly. “Especially lately. We’ve been trying to extend the parameters of the main frame.”  
  
“To what?”  _What else could they possibly do?_  
  
“Well, we can connect to any camera that their electricity can connect to. We have yet, however, to connect to their camera up in space.” He pointed upwards as if Harry didn’t know where space was.  
  
Harry frowned. “Camera in space? They only have s-” Harry’s mouth dropped open like a stone. “You want to hack into their satellite feeds?”  
  
“Hack?” the blond asked.  
  
“Like a break in. Connect to them without their permission. Can’t they tell you’re doing it?”  
  
Draco shrugged uncaring. “They haven’t been able to yet.” He laughed. “And if they do, where are they going to look for us? In a building they can’t see?” He shook his head. “I’ve been debating on whether or not to ask Blue to connect. It’s going to take a lot of power. I don’t know if I can handle the strain. Blaise and Theo say magic is an endless well. It never runs out. But I’ve seen magic fatigue. It isn’t pretty. It may not burn out but it can burn fast. He’s been reassuring me by following even closer than usual, even when I don’t need him there.”  
  
Harry could see the grounded spot of dim blue light that pulsed wherever Draco stepped or rested himself. He remembered the blob coming out to play with Draco while he was thinking on the motive of the Secretary in their holding cells. “It’s remarkable.”  
  
Draco nodded with a smile. “He is.”  
  
“So are you.” With the words out, the words he’d been thinking since the story unfolded, Harry went silent.  
  
Draco stared. “You realise you said that out loud-”  
  
“Yep,” Harry replied, popping the ‘p’  
  
Draco nodded with Harry. “Just… throwing this out as a suggestion. You want to forget you-”  
  
“ _Yes_.”  
  
Draco nodded again. “Very well.” He paused. “Before we do. Just say it one more time.” Harry glared at him. “Just once. I just want to hear it once, is all. In full.”  
  
Harry couldn’t even believe he was entertaining the thought. “You’re remarkable.”  
  
Draco looked like he was fighting hard to contain a grin. Suddenly he was serious. “Okay. Forgotten.” He stood up and put his juice back in the fridge. “You should get some sleep anyway. We’ve been talking for a while. I have no spare room. Just my office upstairs so you will sleep on my couch. It’s comfortable, I promise.” Draco walked him into the living room where a blanket was thrown over the back of the couch and the cushion looked squishy like the sofas in the common rooms at Hogwarts. He picked up a cushion. Yep, so soft.  
  
“Thank you.” He turned to the blond man pulling the blanket off the back. “You didn’t have to do this, you could have just taken off when I went for my bag, so thanks for not getting me in trouble.”  
  
Draco scoffed. “As if you would get in trouble. If I’d left you there. Kingsley would have known the reason why. And he’d have brought you here himself.”  
  
“He knows where you live?”  
  
Draco shrugged like it wasn’t a problem for him. “Conditions of my probation. I was going to cut and run, but I love my job too much and I liked it here.”  
  
“Takes some getting used to.” He felt for his magic again and felt comfort in the fact that it couldn’t get out, that it wouldn’t hurt anyone. “Is it always like this?” he asked. Yeah, it took getting used to, but he  _could_  get used to it, that was his point.  
  
Draco cocked his head to the side and narrowed his eyes at him in question of his wondrous tone. “It’s like this for me. Exactly how long do _you_  plan to stay?”  
  
Harry smiled and rolled his eyes. He sat down on the couch. Comfortable. Draco wasn’t lying. “Good night, Malfoy.”  
  
“So… no answer to answer my question?” In response Harry covered himself with the blanket, took off his glasses and closed his eyes. “Uh huh.” The lights turned off. “I’m changing that couch. Too many people like to sleep over. Good night,  _Potter_.” Harry grinned as he heard the blond stomp up the steps.

 

 

*******

  
  
The scream made Harry snap awake and tangle himself in the blanket before falling to the ground. He stood up quickly and held out his hand willing his magic to his fingertips, ready to fight off whoever.  
  
Draco stood with wide eyes and crazily dishevelled hair wearing glasses and staring at Harry with a hand over his chest. He moved his hands to cover his face. “Merlin,” he whispered, sounding like he was trying to catch his breath and calm his heartbeat.  
  
Harry knew the feeling.  
  
“What? What was it?” Harry asked urgently, still looking around for danger.  
  
“I forgot.” Harry frowned, not fully awake and not nearly ready for puzzles. Draco’ s cheeks were pink in embarrassment. “I forgot you were here. I’m sorry. You startled me.”  
  
Harry dropped his hand, squinting at Draco’s bleary form. “ _I_ startled  _you_?” He was still panting from his wrestling match with the blanket. It lay defeated at his feet along with his t shirt. He’d gone three attempts at a light cooling charm when the room got hot, only to remember where he was and take it off completely, dropping it to the floor. He picked them all up and dropped them on the couch before doing the same with himself. He looked up to see Draco’s blurry form facing him in silence. “What?” he said reaching for his glasses. When he turned back Draco was halfway to the kitchen making himself busy.  
  
“Coffee?”  
  
Harry sighed and tipped his head back. He started at the ceiling in the dawning sun. “Please,” he moaned and shut his eyes.  
  
Something crashed in the sink.  
  
Harry raised his head. “You want help?”  
  
“I can make coffee, Potter. Go get dressed. We leave in an hour.”  
  
Harry rolled his eyes and made his way upstairs. His bag was still on the floor by the vanity next to the sink so he got to work with waking himself up.

 

 

*******

  
  
Harry watched the trees pass as they drove back to town. “Of all the places to live, though, why choose a null?”  
  
Draco sighed as he stared at the road. “It’s the safest place for me.”  
  
The brunet turned in his seat as much as the seatbelt would allow. “Why do you think that?”  
  
“I made enemies during the war. Some afterwards. All of them want me hurt or dead. This place hinders them from doing that.”  
  
“Oh?”  
  
Draco nodded. “All of them are magic users, and all of them use magic to the degree that, when faced with the fact they can’t use it, they don’t know how to handle it. They’ll either try to figure out why their wands don’t work, why their brooms don’t work, why whatever magical instrument they’ve brought along with them doesn’t work, or they’ll be so dizzy with the binding I’ll have time to get away.” He shrugged then, “Plus, I have a car. If they can run after it, I’d welcome them to try, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.”  
  
Harry grinned. “Ingenious.” He straightened as the town came into view.  
  
Draco waited for a moment, driving in silence. “Is that something else you’d like to for-”  
  
“No, you can keep that one.”  
  
Draco nodded once. “Duly noted.” He parked neatly in front of the shop he used to get to work and got out. He set the alarm when Harry shut his door. After unlocking the shop front, they entered and stood up next to the fireplace. Draco took a handful of floo powder and stepped into the grate. “Draco Malfoy’s Office.” The grate flared with green flames and, with a wink, the blond was gone. Harry shook his head with a chuckle and followed suit.  
  
Charles handed Draco his four by six frame as he stepped out into his office, shivering as he connected with Blue again. He was reading through the information that had come up when a red flash had him looking up milliseconds before he heard screaming behind him. He dropped the frame and spun, seeing Harry on the ground. “Shit,” he cursed and dropped to his knees. “Blue, I need silence!” he called out and instantly his office door slammed shut and the room went dark blue with only Draco, Harry and Charles inside. “Potter, you need to relax,” he called to the thrashing man on the floor. “Potter, come on, I need you to relax. We talked about this, remember? You’ve been away from your magic for a few hours, it’s coming back now and you need to let it settle. Potter! Harry! Listen to me. Recognise it as your own, it’s yours. It’s yours!”  
  
It was a few more nerve-wracking seconds before Harry’s cries began to taper off and the trembling began. “Charles, wait outside please,” he said as calmly as he could.  
  
“Sir.” The man stood as if nothing had happened and waited for the room to be unlocked before stepping out. Draco waited for the door to shut and for the lockdown to initiate again before turning back to Harry’s panting form on the floor.  
  
“Dramatic much, Gryffindor? I knew you were powerful, but you actually made Blue flash red for a moment there, did you know?”  
  
“Mm,” was what Harry managed. “Yes – terday-” a breath “-too.”  
  
“Yesterday?” He tried to remember when that was. Surely he’d have seen it? “Can you sit up?” Harry groaned. “Come on and try.” He hauled the brunet into a seated position and crouched there watching him. “How do you feel?”  
  
Harry spent a moment or two just breathing and feeling himself out. “Powerful.”  
  
Cocking an eyebrow Draco smirked. “Ominous.” He patted him on the back once and stood up. He picked up his small frame as he stood. “I like it. Come on. There’s a meeting on Blaise’s side.” He held on to Harry’s arm and pulled him up. Harry was reminded of yesterday in Draco’s fake living room. He stood with effort. “You can leave your bag here.” Draco walked to the door, the room returning to it proper lighting as he put his hand on the doorknob. Harry followed as steadily as he could and they walked through the admin floor and turned left.  
  
“Where is the meeting?”  
  
“It’s in the conference room.”  
  
Harry looked at the portraits on the wall as he followed behind. Using the wall a bit when he leaned too far to the side. The wall shimmered in blue each time he touched it. So, what, Blue liked him now? He chuckled. “I’ll never get used to this place.” He shook his head in wonder. “Who’s the meeting with?”  
  
Draco sighed and handed off the frame to Charles. Harry jumped, not having seen the young man walking with them. “Minister, some obliviators and – urgh, unspeakables.”  
  
Harry grinned. “You don’t like unspeakables either?”  
  
Draco rolled his eyes. “Is it that obvious? They’re a bunch of arrogant arseholes. Think that because they’re privy to a few secrets, they are the Lords of the fucking manor.” He stopped in the corridor. Harry nearly skidded trying not to bump into him. Behind him, Charles – head buried in his frame – had no trouble at all. Harry figured this was something that happened a lot. He concentrated on Draco’s serious expression and stern tone. “If by some miracle you don’t end up working for me, don’t  _ever_  become one of them. Promise me.”  
  
Harry’s eyebrows quirked in a bemused frown. “O-kay.”  
  
Draco nodded once. “Good. You’re arrogant right now,” he said as he took off walking, “but at least you’re salvageable,” he muttered, but Harry heard him all the same.  
  
“Er, thanks?” he said as Draco opened a door on their left.  
  
“Don’t mention it.” He stopped as they entered the room again. On guard this time, Harry stopped too. “Oh, they’re here already,” Draco said with the least of joy possible.  
  
Harry stepped around the blond and walked into the conference room. “Morning.” He held his hand out. Despite what Draco said, he was pleased to actually meet an unspeakable. “Harry Potter.”  
  
Before the unspeakable could actually speak, Draco cut in with, “You still tell people your name when you introduce yourself?”  
  
Harry took back the hand the unspeakable was pointedly not shaking. “Sorry to burst your bubble, but not everyone knows me.” He took a step back from the pair of men in the room. He’d always liked the unspeakable uniform. He sometimes saw them in the DMLE during really serious cases, which only meant that whoever was working a case that involved them would soon be off the case altogether. Childish as it sounded, they always looked so cool, walking around like they owned the place.  
  
Now, he was actually seeing them as the pricks that Draco had spoken of in the corridor. Walking around as if they owned the place.  
  
Amazing how perspective could change like that.  
  
Draco’s snort broke him out of his reverie. “Everyone about to enter this room knows you, Potter. Don’t kid yourself.”  
  
Harry rolled his eyes. Turning back to the unspeakable. “What’s your name?”  
  
The man had been watching their banter. He didn’t seem to like it. “Unspeakable.”  
  
It was a struggle, but he managed not to laugh. He shared a look with Draco. “Seriously?” Didn’t stop the smile, though.  
  
“Seriously,” Draco said in a bored tone.  
  
“It’s protocol,” Unspeakable said pointedly.  
  
Draco rolled his eyes. “It’s ridiculous. I can look up your name in the registry.”  
  
A smug look punctuated the answer. “It was deleted.”  
  
Draco smiled sarcastically. “Is that what they told you?” He clucked his tongue. “Aww, bless.”  
  
Harry’s eyes followed the conversation, snapping back and forth. He sensed history. Narrowed blue eyes sharpened on him. “Why is he here?” he said with a sharp nod to Harry to match his gaze. Harry wondered why Unspeakable couldn’t ask Harry that himself.  
  
“Because he’s Harry Potter,” Draco said nonplussed. Unspeakable stared at Draco as if he was trying to figure out whether the blond was serious. Harry and Draco shared a look. He realised they’d been doing that a lot lately.  
  
“No, seriously. Why is he here?” Unspeakable asked again, apparently taking their shared look as proof of deception.  
  
Draco sighed like he was giving up the pretence. “Because my last example of a wandless caster was useless,” Draco said pointedly. He sat down across from him and waited for everyone else to arrive. Harry, not seeing another viable place, and figuring the best way to get straight to an answer if he needed one, sat down next to him. He noticed Charles sitting on the other side, playing with his portable frame. He didn’t look up once as he sat down, nor did he share any greetings. Harry kind of liked the guy now. Even if the only word he ever heard the man say was ‘Sir’.  
  
“You asked for someone wandless-”  
  
“I  _asked_  for someone who could harness their wild magic without being taught. The only person who has delivered on that.” He turned to Harry with a fond smile that almost scared him. “And you deliver beautifully by the way.” He turned back with a vindictive smile to Unspeakable. “Is sitting next to me.” Harry held back on the grin. Draco was obviously trying to get a rise out of the man. It was almost magical watching it work and to not have the needling directed at him.  
  
“Sir?” Charles said, his head popping up.  
  
Draco didn’t even blink at the interruption. “Not you, Charles.” The man nodded and went back to his work.  
  
Narrowed eyes switched between the both of them. He scoffed finalising his gaze on Harry. “Good luck. Don’t expect too much.”  
  
Harry laughed. “We go way back. I know exactly what to expect.”  
  
Before they could go any further, the door opened and Kingsley walked in followed by Zacharias Smith and Dean Thomas. Harry smiled. Finally, someone he knew. “Dean!” Dean had left the DMLE four years ago. Said he was going to follow his dreams. He’d then turned up in the field wearing the grey and brown uniform.  
  
His friend smiled and grabbed his hand as Harry pulled him in for a hug. “What?! Made it up the ranks, Harry?”  
  
Harry shook his head. “Consulting only.”  
  
Draco scoffed. “Please, you’ll be working for me in a week.”  
  
“Is that so,” Dean grinned.  
  
“Mm,” Draco confirmed. “We need our own operatives. The more consults we do, the less secret we get. We’ve only have a handful and each have their own specialties.” He smirked at Harry. “You’d fit right in.”  
  
“Yeah? What number am I?”  
  
Draco looked up counting. “Mmm, number seven I believe.”  
  
Harry grinned maniacally. “You’re shitting me?” he said excited.  
  
Draco frowned, not understanding. “No.” He backed off a little.  
  
Harry toned down the grin. “I’m 007?”  
  
Though Dean was amused and looking at him with a knowing grin, the bemused expression remained on everyone else in the room. “Just seven, Potter. Are you alright?” he gave him a meaningful look. “Have you settled yet?”  
  
Harry shook his head to dismiss Draco’s worry. He sat back smiling. “I’m just fine. Just fine. Need to get my own drink,” he muttered to himself.  
  
Draco decided to leave that as a reference he wasn’t going to understand for now. “Are we ready to start?” he said, changing the subject.  
  
Kingsley Shacklebolt nodded and sighed gravely. “Yes. Let us start with Secretary Williamson is gone.”  
  
Both Harry and Draco were disturbed by this information. “What?” Harry sat forward.  
  
“He disappeared early this morning from the holding cells in the DMLE.”  
  
Harry didn’t believe that. “How? Those cells are secure, only the person on duty knows the-”  
  
Kingsley looked grave and Harry saw the disappointment there. “Yes. I know.”  
  
Draco was shaking his head next to him. “This isn’t good.”  
  
“How intelligent of you,” Unspeakable Two said.  
  
For once, Harry was on the same page. “It was the only thing he was missing.” Draco looked at him in surprise. “He had no proof, right? No solid proof besides what other people told him and his own wild magic. Now he has a location and he has coordinates.”  
  
“Very intelligent, Potter,” Draco said and, if Harry didn’t know any better, he’d say he heard pride in the blond’s voice.  
  
“Still,” Unspeakable said, “If he tries to take us out here, he won’t be exposing us like you predicted. So let him come.”  
  
Draco stared. Typical unspeakable response.  
  
“I see what you mean now,” Harry muttered lowly next to him.  
  
Draco smirked to show him he’d heard before he spoke. “His design hasn’t changed. His history and his motive shown in his crimes prove he’s going to try to expose us at some point. He needs an audience though, so it’s unlikely he’ll actually come here until he’s accomplished that. But his accomplice is gone and likely going straight to him. He’s going to act soon, if not today.”  
  
“But he could just do magic in public.”  
  
Draco shook his head. “That’s not going to work, and it’s likely he’s already tried that anyway.”  
  
“How do you know?”  
  
“Because I did what any regular person working a case like this would do. I researched him. During his absent years one of my M-techs-”  
  
“Minions.”  
  
“ _M-techs_ ,” Draco forced through the interruption. “Found documentation of his admittance to Broadmoor Hospital.”  
  
Harry’s eyes widened. “That’s a bit harsh, isn’t it?” he said knowing of Broadmoor’s reputation.  
  
“Not for a man threatening to change the Muggles’ frame of reference it’s not. We needed him put away. And he went away for-” He leaned over to Charles and read from the frame the man held up to him without prompting. “-eighteen months. Long time to be in a place like that.” Draco sighed. “He escaped after an unexplained explosion during his movement from the east to west wing.”  
  
Harry cocked his head to the side. “But wild magic works on emotion. It would have come out before then.”  
  
Draco looked at him. “Not if his wing was a null.”  
  
Harry very nearly paled. He remembered how his magic rushed back to him this morning after being away from it for one night. After a year and a half? Jesus Bloody Christ. He huffed out a breath.  
  
“He was sentenced for trying to prove our world existed by using his magic in a public place. We couldn’t prosecute because he was living as a Muggle, he couldn’t just disappear. The null wing was our sentence in his world. Made it even. In the long run, it only worsened his hate of us. But it’s difficult to prove when only one person is doing it to a crowd. In our years of hiding, we’ve become smoke. And the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.”  
  
Dean nodded at that. He turned to Harry. “It’s why the magic circle was invented, why people like Liam Walsh and Dynamo are put on the street to perform. People ‘know’ magic doesn’t exist, but if we keep them in a state of suspended disbelief, they ignore their reality and believe the illusion for a little while. They’re amazed, naturally, see it as entertainment, but then try to figure out how it’s done once that wears off. It’s the grandest form of reverse psychology. Practically does our job for us.” Harry nodded his understanding.  
  
Draco sighed. “But none of that matters if our art thief gets what he wants. Without our network, we have no insight to his plans. We have nothing to base our intelligence on. We’re running on the fumes of rumours here and he’s dangerous. He’s more dangerous than anything we’ve faced because he has nothing to lose and our disadvantage is that he believes magic is the cause of that loss. He hates it, he’s against it and he’s going to expose it the only way he can.”  
  
“How’s that?” Zacharias asked.  
  
In response. Draco turned to Harry. “In our fifth year, when you said the Dark Lord was back and no one believed you, how did you feel? How did you feel when people called you crazy?”  
  
Harry shifted uncomfortably, displeased with the road this conversation was going on. Especially with one of his Housemates in the room. “That’s different.”  
  
Draco’s eyebrows raised in disbelief. “Is it? This man believes that magic killed his family, Harry. He’s told people that, been institutionalised until he suddenly escaped. Now he’s on a warpath.” Draco settled his elbows on the armrest of the chair. “So tell me, how did you feel when they admitted you were right?”  
  
Harry kept silent. He knew how he felt and he hated that he could relate to this man, hated that Draco was the one making him see that. He remembered the curl in his gut, the tendril of smug ‘I told you so,’ when he’d heard the Minister whisper in a horrified awe, ‘ _It’s impossible_ ’ while he stared his own death in the face. He remembered how good he felt. Relieved. Vindicated.  _Satisfied._  
  
Draco took in his expression, like he could read every word of his thoughts on his face. He cocked his head to the side in thought. “And do you remember  _when_  they admitted you were right?”  
  
The words felt like he was pulling them through molasses. “When they saw him,” he said reluctantly, his jaw set. His eyes rose to Kingsley. “At the Ministry.”  
  
Draco simply nodded. “And what was he doing?” He didn’t even bother to wait for an answer. “Yeah. He’s going to  _make_  them see. He’ll do it big, he’ll do it public and he’s going to hurt people in a way they won’t understand. They’ll be afraid and no amount of obliviators can undo that quick enough to contain the knowledge.” He looked at Zacharias and Dean. “No offence.”  
  
“None taken. Much.”  
  
Draco chuckled at Dean’s answer. “And we don’t even... oh.  _Oh_.”  
  
Eyes were drawn to the look of clarity on Draco’s face. “What?” Even Charles had stopped working to look up.  
  
Draco shut his eyes. “Fuck.”  
  
“What, Malfoy?”  
  
“What do we use our portraits for?” he asked the room.  
  
Harry thought back to his lesson yesterday. “To gather intelligence, like you said.”  
  
“And?”  
  
“Oh, for - Malfoy, stop trying to give me Wizarding World lessons and just get to the point.”  
  
Draco huffed. “We use our portraits to gather intelligence, that’s true. But we also use them for communication. We’ve only been thinking in terms of our usual communication with them. Our treaties with the Muggle world are fragile at best. We can promise no harm as much as we want, but the power imbalance is blindingly obvious. They’re afraid of us, of what we can do, especially because they can’t explain or replicate it for themselves. What do you think is going to happen when they’re attacked and have no communication with the only people who can explain, who can help? When they realise that every mode of communication was steadily and meticulously removed in the months just before?”  
  
Realisation fell on them all at the same time, it seemed. “Fuck,” Harry whispered.  
  
“But we can just set up a meeting and tell them,” Kingsley said.  
  
“We could, but he’s escalating. The Secretary disappeared and three people are dead and we can’t prove if it was magic or not until we get in and see for ourselves. If he attacks before we can explain, before we know for sure that those murders are in connection with our world, the Muggles who know have reasonable doubt. And the Muggles that know are not the type you want having reasonable doubt. They have the power, they have the control. They have the means.”  
  
“You’re talking about war.” Kingsley’s expression was grave.  
  
When the Unspeakable both scoffed, Draco glared at them. “We are powerful in our right, but we are  _severely_  outnumbered. War is not an option we want to look at it if we can avoid it.”  
  
A narrowed blue gaze once again settled on Draco. “You’ve changed your tune.”  
  
Draco paused and stared. Harry had a feeling the blond wasn’t surprised by the question but rather gathering strength so as not to throttle the man Harry was sitting across from. With narrowed eyes, Draco sat back in his chair at the conference table. “My  _tune_  remains the same. I couldn’t give two squirts of piss about who a wizard or witch chooses to procreate with. I care about keeping my world safe.” Draco’s voice got harsher the more he spoke. “The more we expose ourselves to Muggles - to their families - because we’ve fallen for one of them, or because we’re friends with  _one_  of them... the more people know, the more people are aware of a completely different world they have no hope of understanding or living in.” Harry shifted in his seat and felt Draco’s cursory glance in his direction before the passionate dislike was once again transferred on Unspeakable One. “Muggles are territorial. They are a greedy and jealous people. They are quick to anger and persecution when they feel they are wronged.  
  
“We have lost hundreds of our own, of  _our_  families to them. They drowned us,  _burned us_ , and dragged us behind horses just to test us. They killed their own in error, without a care, for something as simple as doubt.” From the corner of his eyes, Harry saw Zacharias’ face bend down. He could imagine the sadness, and was – for once – glad of his ignorance. Draco stood. It looked like he was leaving, the sheer stupidity too much for him to stay in the room. “We tried to live alongside them, and we got a near genocide in return. We decided, as a people, that we are better off in hiding. We are safer this way. And it is the Ministry’s job - my job - to keep it that way. Since you work for the Ministry too, your  _tune_  is in  _fucking harmony_  with mine.” He eyed them all, his path ending on Kingsley. “Kingsley, I’ll be in my department, you can see yourselves out,” he said and left. His demeanour calm in contrast to his tone. Silently, Charles got up and Harry decided to follow the man’s lead, leaving the room of shocked faces behind.

 

 

*******

  
  
“The fucking nerve of him,” Draco continued to rant as he strapped the wand holster onto Harry’s forearm.  
  
“Hmm,” Harry said for the umpteenth time. After leaving the conference room, he’d followed Draco to the Ops floor and sat down on the workbench closest to Draco’s desk at once when the blond had pointed to it in silence. From that point on he listened to the sporadic rants that erupted as Draco collected his kit. As soon as they had confirmation on Harlow’s location, he had to be ready to go, so he sat down and shut up, not seeing the point in arguing.  
  
Harry eyed the M-techs standing at the station by the steps as they outfitted the unspeakable duo with the requisite tools they’d need. Neither seemed happy to be doing so and, for the first time while he listened to Draco grumble, he realised why the CMI minions disliked the unspeakables so much. With one last glance, he turned back and wondered if he was out of place.  _Screw it, might as well ask._. “So how long did you date Unspeakable before you realised you wanted to stab him in the eye with your exploding quill?”  
  
Draco paused and looked up from his work. Harry could tell Draco didn’t want to give anything away, but the quick sideways glance to the area by the steps was a clear indicator that he hit the right mark. Draco was silent for a while and Harry thought he wouldn’t answer (though the silence was enough) when a quiet, “Three months,” finally exited the blond’s mouth. Harry whistled in surprise. “And my quills don’t explode. Stop asking for one, it’s not going to happen.”  
  
“Not even if I say I’ll test it on his eye?” Draco paused, as if he were actually considering it. Harry grinned at him, shark-like, in encouragement. Eventually, as Draco fastened the last buckle, he shook his head laughing. “Wow. Now, there’s inner strength.” Draco scoffed. His eyes went up to the centre frame, the largest of the seven. The map of London was centralised over a park. There weren’t any cameras there, so there was no live feed they could view. Harry watched the red mark there blinking as it moved around. “Remind me why we don’t just go after Williamson?” He slid his wand in place and then pulled his robe on over his obstacle-clear arms. This waiting was doing his head in.  
  
“He’ll lead us to Harlow. We just have to wait.”  
  
“But he hasn’t moved for an hour. Not outside of the Hyde Park, anyway.”  
  
Draco nodded. “I noticed. But if he’s going to expose us, he’d choose a much more densely populated area. Large parks have people, but not so close together it would cause the panic he’s hoping for.”  
  
Harry nodded in thought. “I guess.” He laughed then reminded of something. “I was at Ron’s last week and his neighbour’s daughter is…” He stopped. “Wait, what date is it?”  
  
“20th. Why?”  
  
Harry was staring at the map. “Live 8.” It wasn’t enough, he needed to see if he was right.  
  
Draco looked confused. “What? Harry, you have to understand that I honestly don’t know what you’re saying half the time.”  
  
Harry looked at him and smiled. “Frustrating, isn’t it?” He pulled down his sleeve and walked up to the main screen. “Malf-Draco,” he corrected and turned to the blond. “I’m going to ask you to do something you’re not going to want to do.”  
  
Draco cocked an eyebrow. “And what’s that?” He found that very hard to believe, after all.  
  
“I want you to test run your satellite hack.”  
  
Draco seemed uneasy. “Why?”  
  
Harry shook his head. “Live 8 is a concert held every year in different parks. The first of its kind was called ‘Party in the Park’. Muggles are celebrating this year even harder because it’s returning to its root beginnings. Hyde Park.” He looked up at the frame. “We have to make sure before we send in people to apprehend him. This is what you designed the spell for.”  
  
“Harry.”  
  
“You can do it. I promise. Call Blue.”  
  
Draco opened his mouth, and then shut it again. He looked up at the main frame and took in a deep breath. “It might not work.” He picked up his four by six and tapped the side.  
  
 _R &D, we have what you need_.  
  
Draco chuckled. “Shut up, Theo, and come up here. We’re testing Icarus.”  
  
 _Shit, why?_  
  
Draco sighed as if he were under great stress. “Because Potter asked me to.”  
  
 _And you do everything he says, do you?_  
  
“He wants to stab Unspeakable Lexley in the eye with an explosive quill.”  
  
There was a pause.  _I see. Well, that’ll do it. I’ll be right up._  
  
Draco tapped the side of his frame again and waited, leaning against the desk as he stared up at the main frame. “This can go so badly.”  
  
“You won’t know till you try.” He watched as Draco seemed to debate with himself for a moment. “Lexley?” was all he said. No wonder Unspeakable One was so adamant to go only by his title.  
  
Draco snorted. “Yeah.”  
  
“Bloody hell,” Harry concluded. He crossed his arms and they sat in silence until Theo came upstairs. The brunet walked up to Harry and shook his hand.  
  
“Draco, I approve. Blaise does, too, I just called him.”  
  
Draco frowned. “Approve, what?”  
  
Theo’s gaze switched between them. “Right…. So!” He changed the subject. “Icarus? Exciting!”  
  
Draco shook his head at his strange friends. “Blue,” he said on a resigned sigh. He delayed a second or two. “Connect to the satellite.”  
  
Harry jumped when the wall before him suddenly flashed with a blue tint. The six outer frames on the wall dimmed and became blank as the magic was sucked out of them to be collected by Blue. It made the essence of magic there brighter before it settled. It was a wonder to behold. Next to him, Draco was biting his lip and the room in general became silent as they watched the premier of Draco’s spell. M-techs lined the railing in admin and the ops floor was full. He could see the Unspeakable and Obliviation team standing by the steps to witness it close up.  
  
As Blue bled into the centre main frame, the myriad of colours whorled and swirled in bright contrast to the dark wall around it. When the picture settled, the image was sharper and moved clearly without interruption. It was the live feed from a satellite. In space.  
  
“Oh my god,” Harry said awestruck. “You did it.”  
  
“I did,” he whispered. He laughed in relief before shaking it off. “But it’s not all he can do.” He turned to Harry with a smug pride and walked up to the wall. “Let’s take a closer look, Blue. Hyde Park.” The image zoomed in, panning calmly over the park. “Oh,” he said reverently, “watch you fly.” A large mass of people were gathered in one area. Just as they’d predicted. Large and public. It was going to be a disaster. Draco shook his head, not satisfied. “I need a better scale, we need to know depth for positioning.” He turned to Harry and smiled. “Go to ground view,” he said clearly.  
  
Harry eyed him strangely before he realised Draco wasn’t speaking to him, he was talking to Blue. He moved back, startled, as the bottom of the frame moved away from the wall and the top slid down. As the frame flattened horizontally, it floated to Draco’s desk. Once there, Draco stood and watched his department. “M-techs-” He stopped and sighed fondly. “Minions,” he corrected and shook his head when they all smiled at him in response. “We’ve come far since our inception and, though we’re in a race against time, I cannot help but show off just a little.” He rested his hands on the edge of the frame, smiling a little when his magic leaked over the edges of the frame onto his hand. “This is our next level of surveillance.” He looked around. “Remember it.” He raised his hands.  
  
The room filled with gasps, wide eyes and, shortly after, applause and cheers.  
  
Harry put his eyes level to the frame and then stood up whistling. “Christ.” He looked at Draco. “No wonder you kept this a secret.” He moved closer to the miniature three-dimensional live feed in front of him. He wanted to call it magic, and he knew that it was, but all the pop culture references in his mind were labelling what he saw as a hologram. A full colour,  _reach out and touch it_  hologram. It was hard to shake the Muggle out of him, apparently.  
  
It was probably what made him touch it.

 

 

*******

  
  
Harry was deafened by the cheers. He stared at the large open space in front of him in confusion. Where the hell was he?.  
  
“Oi! What are you doing back here, this area is out of bounds!” A large group of burly looking men were coming toward him. He caught something in his peripheral vision and paled as he turned around to face the crowd. He’d appeared next to a speaker on the stage. In front of the crowd.  
  
The speaker he’d touched on Draco’s hologram.  
  
 _Nope, not a hologram anymore. Definitely magic_.  
  
 _Huh_  For some reason, the voice sounded just like Draco. “Fuck me.”

 

 

*******

  
  
The Ops floor in the CMI were of the same mind. “What the hell just happened!?” was the general gist when the saviour of the Wizarding World disappeared completely.  
  
“Where did he go? Malfoy, what did you do?” Theo ranted over the din of the department and what sounded like a cheering crowd.  
  
“Me? I didn’t do anything!”  
  
 _Oi! What are you doing back there, this area is out of bounds!_  
  
“Er, Sir?” he heard Charles call behind him nervously. When he turned, Charles was pointing at the stage in the frame. Draco walked over cautiously and stared down in disbelief.  
  
“Huh.”  
  
In the frame, Harry looked at the speaker he’d touched just as he was hauled away by the security team.  _Fuck me_ , he heard clear and sharp in the room as if the brunet was right there.  
  
“Oh Merlin, I can hear him.”  
  
“Can he hear you?” Dean asked.  
  
 _Draco? Dean?_  
  
Dean’s smile was wry. “That answers that question.”  
  
“So your design here is a portal, too?” Unspeakable Lexley said.  
  
Draco glared at him. “I don’t know. I didn’t know until he touched it.”  
  
Lexley shrugged and placed his hand somewhere remote where no one would see him if he suddenly appeared. The place he touched turned red and the unspeakable snatched back his hand. It was red also. He glared accusingly at Draco. Draco watched him in fascination, just as surprised when the results weren’t replicated. “So it only works for him?” The accusing tone didn’t lessen at all. Draco couldn’t help but feel a little thrilled by Blue’s behaviour.  
  
“Apparently.” He looked at the operative team Kingsley had assembled. Two unspeakables, two obliviators. “Looks like you’re taking the scenic route.”

 

 

*******

  
  
Gavin Williamson, was at the Live 8 concert with his family. He was walking around with them, laughing and having a good time, showing no signs that he’d just been apprehended and then escaped auror custody. To top it off, he was actually looking in Harry’s direction every so often as if he knew Harry was there and couldn’t do anything unless he wanted to draw attention to himself by attacking the Secretary to a member of Parliament.  
  
“Potter,” Harry jumped and turned to the group of three that had turned up around him. “Neat trick. But keep the theatrics to a minimum, yes? There’s a lad,” Unspeakable Two said.  
  
“Lexley stood on his other side. “That him?” was all he said before the two of them began walking in the man’s direction.  
  
“Wait,” Harry called. “Where is Madley?”  
  
“He’ll be with him.”  
  
Harry shook his head. “No, something doesn’t feel right.” He pulled out his tracker. Nothing, not even a blip on the radar except for the dead centre where he was standing. The red light faded in and out sporadically.  
  
Lexley rolled his eyes. “You can dwell on your feelings all you want, Auror. But if you’re not going to do your job, then dwell over here. We’re going after Williamson.” The two of them took off.  
  
Zacharias Smith stood looking between the two groups. “I suppose you’re staying with Potter?” he asked Dean.  
  
Dean grinned at his colleague. “You suppose right.” Zach rolled his eyes and followed the pair of unspeakables.  
  
Dean stayed back. “Harry, what is it?”  
  
Harry was looking around. He felt uneasy, like he was missing something. “He’s not here. If he was he would be leaking, like I am.”  
  
Dean cocked an eyebrow at the phrasing. He looked down and then up again. “Wanna run that by me again, mate?”  
  
Harry actually chuckled weakly. “He has wild magic. It doesn’t stay in, especially with his history. It’s a constant thing. It can’t stop.” He looked down at his tracker. “But there isn’t even a flare on the tracker. He’s not here.” A commotion on the stage made him look up. He tilted his head as if that would help. “Wait a sec. Is that?-”  
  
Dean squinted at the stage covering his eyes in the Sun. There was a man in auror robes staggering on stage. “That’s Hooper.”  
  
“What is Geoffrey doing on the stage?”  
  
 _Harry, there’s a large gathering of magic straight ahead of you. Do you see it?_  Harry pulled out his tracker again. Yes, he could see it. It was all coming from Geoffrey, flaring in bright pulses on the disc of glass. “Yeah, I see it.”  
  
Dean turned to him. “See what?”  
  
Harry shook his head. “Not you, I’m talking to Draco.”  
  
“You can hear him?”  
  
Harry looked at him. “You can’t?” Dean shook his head like it was obvious. “Huh. Maybe it’s because I came in through his hologram.”  
  
“Maybe,” Dean said shrugging. He looked back up at the stage as security walked up to Hooper with the intent to move him off the stage. “Think he’s the mole?” Dean asked.  
  
The bouncer flew back, thrown like a ragdoll by invisible hands. Harry sighed. “Only explanation.” He looked around. “Seriously, where is Madley? Shouldn’t he want a good view of this? He’s obviously spent a long time planning this. I would think he’d want a front row seat.”  
  
 _Shit, fuck!_  Harry froze as Draco shouted.  _Harry, you may be onto something_.  
  
“What?” He ignored Dean’s questioning look. “What do you mean?”  
  
“He wanted a good view of his work. What better view of this spectacle, than mine?” Suddenly, there was nothing but silence in his ear.  
  
“Draco? Draco! Can you hear me?” Harry looked up to the stage and saw the unspeakables tackling Geoffrey. The crowd cheered like they were being given a show.  
  
It suddenly made sense. “Distraction. This is a distraction. We need to get back to the Ministry now.”

 

 

*******

  
  
When the room turned red, Draco knew something was wrong. “Blue, what’s going on?” The six remaining frames started to power up and Draco watched them in wonder. The flattened frame across his desk didn’t even flicker. He took a moment for a deep breath. He’d heard of magic replenishing itself, but just how powerful was his wild magic that none of this even made him feel tired? This was insane.  
  
The six frames now showed the result of their Ministry-wide upgrade, courtesy of ‘Spell Development’, the fictitious department they’d created to ease their designs into each section of the Ministry. In reality, they’d simply installed surveillance charms so that they could see every inch of the place when they needed. They hadn’t had use for it yet and Kingsley had been very dubious when signing off on it (thank you Blaise Zabini, bureaucracy kept them in the clear). Right now, Draco thought the Minister of Magic would thank them, especially when there was a man with magic practically dripping out of his fingers and standing with his arm stretched out towards him in blatant threat.  
  
“Shit! Fuck! Harry, you may be onto something. He wanted a good view of his work. What better view of this spectacle, than mine?” His eyes went from frame to frame just as all the frames cut out. The room was much dimmer without the bright glare. At his desk, Blue sank out of the centre frame and pooled on the cool stone. Draco huffed. “Ah, was wondering when you’d get tired, you little shit. Stop overworking us. I’m gonna sleep for days as it is.” Staring at the footage of Kingsley trapped in his office with his secretary, Draco eyed the other departments he could see as he flicked from one surveillance spell to the other. No one was any the wiser that something was going on except the fifth floor. “Theo. I think you need to test your alarm, don’t you?” He turned to his friend. “Let’s evacuate, yeah?”  
  
Blue was wavering on the desk until it froze and then shot across to the closest frame still on the wall. When it lit up, which took far less power than before, Draco saw an image of Harry and Dean landing in the atrium just as Theo’s alarm went off.  
  
Draco smiled. “Well, hello, Hero. Blue, get Potter on the phone.”

 

 

*******

  
  
As soon as Harry and Dean entered the Ministry, he could feel his own magic buzzing under his skin like fire. They hadn’t walked three steps before a familiar voice began instructing everyone to vacate the Ministry of Magic in a calm orderly fashion. In the midst of confusion, while confused people began lining up at the fireplaces, a blue colour whizzed across the floor and stopped before them to turn to the lifts. It chose an empty car and automatically started descent as the doors shut.  
  
 _Hello, Potter, there you are. Harlow’s here_ , said Draco’s voice in place of the usual announcer.  
  
Harry nodded. “I figured.”  
  
 _He’s got Kingsley in his office. Merlin knows how he got in, but the DMLE is out for the count. Blue didn’t catch him until he started flaring out magic from his fingers like molten lava. Seriously, you have to see it to believe it._  
  
Dean sounded shocked. “He took on the DMLE? All of them?”  
  
 _No, surveillance shows he walked in and they all collapsed._  
  
Harry paused for thought as the fifth floor approached. “Why the DMLE?”  
  
 _He wasn’t going there specifically. Get down as the doors open. You need to stay hidden_ , Draco instructed.  _He was in the atrium at first, just looking around, and then he got in a lift and stood there._  He interrupted his narrative for more instructions.  _Follow Blue, I’ll lose communication unless you stay near him._  
  
“Did he have directions, or something?” Harry asked quietly. He turned to Dean. “Ready?”  
  
Dean snorted in reply. “So, what, he just rode the lift until he heard something he liked?”  
  
 _His eyes light up like fairy lights when the announcing charm in the lift called out ‘Minister of Magic’s Office’. He was out like a shot. Now he’s got Kingsley and poor Alicia hostage. Blaise will be angry. You need to lure him out._  Harry noticed, as they approached Kingsley’s office, Blue started to slowly turn red.  
  
“How?” he asked quieter than before.  
  
 _I can’t do everything, Potter. Just be careful, he’s throwing around magic like its confetti._  
  
Harry and Dean suddenly jumped when a hand grabbed Harry’s leg. When Harry looked down, he saw Ron laying there looking up at him. Ron’s face looked confused before he blacked out. Harry grabbed hold of his friend and dragged him under his desk with Dean’s help. “Christ, this guy is ridiculous.”  
  
“Wild magic often is. It’s why we’re supposed to have wands, or train for control.”  
  
Harry thought for a second, remembering what Draco told him about restraint. Harlow never learned how to hold back, never had to learn. He was going to be letting out some powerful magic and, because he did it often, stopping would be difficult.  
  
Harry sighed. This was going to  _hurt_. He stood up and ran.  
  
“Harry!” Dean called after him.  
  
 _Potter. What the hell are you doing? Get back!_  
  
At the loud call of his name, before Harry even turned the corner to Kingsley’s office, the door had opened and a fat glowing wordless spell came flying at him. He ducked under it, only to get clipped on the shoulder and crash into the wall on the other side. Though the crash hurt more than the spell, he counted himself lucky. That magic was really powerful.  
  
He looked up the corridor to see a man who looked broken. He’d been crying, probably yelling at Kingsley all this time. What he could have been saying, he had no idea, he’d have to ask Draco, but there was no hope in his eyes, he was throwing his magic around like he had nothing to lose.  
  
Harry wouldn’t be able to incapacitate him without serious injury and he had a feeling any threatening gestures would make his magic flare up higher. He glanced across at Blue’s fiery red outline as it clung to the wall. Magic lived to protect after all. His was singing after that hit, he could hear the ringing in his ears as his blood rushed and the adrenaline flowed.  
  
“Stay back! I’ll kill him, I’ll kill all of them!” Another fresh wave of the man’s fury sailed at him. Harry felt a pressure on his chest and he breathed in to counteract it as he felt his skin tighten. The wild spell stopped a few feet from him, crashing into a wall no one could see before Harry threw an offensive strike of his own. He still felt the hit, but it felt more like he’d been blocking it from behind a door.  
  
Didn’t hurt though, which was nice.  
  
The blocked spell only seemed to enrage Harlow further though. He screamed when he threw the next one, and the next, and the next. The magic was raw, jagged at the edges. Though his barrier held up, licks of fire still got through and Harry felt them on his skin.  
  
 _What’s wrong with your magic? Your barrier is weakening._  Harry panted heavily.  _Throw something back at him_  
  
“He’s really strong.” Harry was surprised for someone who never went to school or had any kind of training.  
  
 _That’s not strength, it’s lack of restraint. He’s not limited like you are. He sees what he wants and tells his magic to get it. You need to do the same. Put your back into it, for Merlin’s sake._  
  
Harry frowned at Blue, where Draco’s voice was coming from. “ _You_  come up here and put  _your_  back into it.” But his mind was racing. He was thinking too small.  
  
 _Wild magic never behaves like it should_ , Draco had said.  
  
Harry parried the next hit, deflecting it into the wall. It sliced its way through the wood and stone like a hot knife through butter and Harry shuddered to think what that would have done to him if it had landed. He needed to think. No. He needed to let go. He took a deep breath and tried not to let anything enter his mind like he usually did. His magic sailed from his hand with a heat he hadn’t felt since he was in primary school.  
  
Harlow actually looked worried when Harry’s magic almost hit him.  
  
 _Yes,_  he thought to himself and looked down at his hands.  _Just like that_  
  
So Harry did it again and nearly crowed inside when Harlow ducked for cover in the alcove leading to Kingsley’s office.  
  
No. Harry moved quickly. He could feel his magic surging as he got closer, trading blows with the man. It twisted and pulled, reacting to his close proximity. Only his lifetime of trying to keep it in stopped him from the inevitable explosion. He could hear Harlow’s frustrated yells and none of his magic was even remotely stopping Harry’s approach. Harry wiped sweat from his brow, the pressure and heat was intense. He could only imagine what Harlow was feeling.  
  
 _Ever heard of Spontaneous Wild Magic Eruption?_  suddenly sprang to his mind out of nowhere.  
  
Harry stopped instantly. Ducking down, back to the wall, with his arm outstretched and waiting for Harlow to peek around the corner. Okay. New plan. He had to lure him out or knock him out. When the head surfaced, Harry aimed and let his magic go. The head disappeared with a painful yell and when he heard the body hit the floor, and the pressure increased tenfold, Harry ran. He needed to get him out of the Ministry. He had to get him out of the Ministry.  
  
And if his magic knew what was good for it, it’d fucking better do as it’s told.  
  
He grabbed onto the screaming man, pulled him up and span in place.

 

 

*******

  
  
Theo stared at the empty corridor. There were chunks of stone blasted out of the wall and scorch marks absolutely everywhere. In the top corner, he could see Kingsley poke his head through his door and step out flabbergasted at all the damage.  
  
“Where did they go?” he asked, mostly to himself, since Draco had taken to ordering all of his minions to find Harry Potter’s location. Around him, the Ops floor was a flurry of activity. All the floos were active, messages being sent and received looking for any information. Others were scanning at their workstations, looking for magical flares anywhere in the country.  
  
There was nothing. Theo looked across at his friend as he performed a scan of his own. The main frame was back on the wall and Blue’s corporeal form had taken up residence on Draco’s desk as soon as Potter had apparated away.  
  
“His signature isn’t anywhere,” Theo noted after a few minutes of silence.  
  
Draco huffed. “Even if he used his wild magic, something would flare when he landed. The two of them were on the verge of eruption, Madley especially. I wouldn’t expect a prolonged signal but something, anything... there would be a spike or influx somewhere.” He sighed and bent forward over his hands where he rest them on the desk trying to think of something he was missing.  
  
He needed coffee, and his bed. Merlin what he wouldn’t do to be...  
  
Draco gasped and looked up at the map of the British Isles. His eyes narrowed in thought before he snorted. “Oh, you overachieving bastard.”  
  
“What?” Theo asked, looking over from his attempts to find Potter himself.  
  
Draco shook his head. “Theo, hold down the fort and send for back up.” He glanced once more at the map before he turned to the stairs leading to his office.  
  
“Where the hell are  _you_  going now?”  
  
Draco spared a glance over his shoulder as he turned right to his office. He didn’t sound impressed when he said, “Home.”

 

 

*******

  
  
They dropped like a stone on concrete and it hurt. A lot.  
  
Harry felt like he was still spinning, even when he stopped rolling on the tarmac of the road. His vision spun and his lungs clenched tight. Part of it was the fall, he knew. The rest was the binding. He only vaguely felt when he threw up on the ground, as he was so dizzy. To top it off, it was raining. In summer, because... why not?  
  
He sat up and groaned, hissing when his hand found purchase on the ground. Now that the shock was wearing off a bit, the pain was settling in hard. He ached everywhere, but his head was much clearer than it had been in the Ministry. He looked to his right. Harlow Madley was trembling on his side. He wasn’t completely knocked out, but he wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. He looked about as bad as Harry felt though and he’d been close to exploding so Harry only imagined how he’d feel when he woke up properly.  
  
The rain was falling in a steady spray and Harry focused on his breathing as he looked up and down the road. He let out a little laugh. He’d made it and from the looks of it, he was on the road that led to Draco’s home, so he’d managed a good few miles inside of the null too. He raised his head to the sky and laughed, revelling in the cool water on his face.  
  
He needed to get out of the road. Very slowly, he managed to get himself to his feet and stood for a moment testing his balance. With a Herculean effort, more than it admittedly should have taken, he managed to move Madley to the side of the road and dropped down next to him.  
  
He closed his eyes and waited.  
  
“You’re an idiot.”  
  
Harry’s eyes snapped open as he startled awake. It wasn’t raining anymore. Had he been asleep? Wasn’t that dangerous after hitting your head repeatedly on a road? He blinked rapidly and shook his head to clear the cobwebs. He held his head when that only made it worse.  
  
“Here.” a cold bottle of water was placed in his hand and he gratefully took a sip. “So... how do  _you_  feel?” Draco asked sarcastically as he crouched down. Harry held his head when he laughed. “You realise there are other nulls to suicidally apparate too? Some of them remarkably closer that fucking Wiltshire, Harry.”  
  
“Was the only place I thought of.”  
  
“Well, that’s very sweet, but you’re still an idiot.”  
  
Harry nodded slowly. “I know.” He looked up. “How’s the Ministry?”  
  
Draco smirked and looked away. “Still standing, in a manner of speaking.”  
  
Harry winced. “And how in trouble am I?”  
  
“Kingsley will live, it’s fine,” the blond replied, shrugging one shoulder. “It’s me you’ll have to worry about.” Harry looked up. “Come along, Potter. I believe there are some unspeakables in my living room waiting for our friend here. I’d like them out of there as soon as possible, please.” Draco stood and held out an arm.  
  
Harry laughed as they struggled to pull him up again. When he was finally standing, he stared at the blond and smiled.  
  
Draco narrowed his eyes. “Don’t you fucking do that to me again. My operatives do not give me heart attacks, you hear?” he said poking the brunet in his chest. Harry hissed at the soreness. “Good,” Draco said when he heard it, as if encouraging the pain. “That’s my new first law. Learn it, live it, love it.”  
  
Harry chuckled despite the pain in his chest. “Kind of already do,” he said and ducked his head as he rubbed over the spot Draco had poked. He avoided the blond’s eyes as he helped him get Harlow into his car but was unable to when a hand held his face, careful of the scrapes making him look into Draco’s eyes.  
  
“Good.” it was softer. Fonder. “We’ll talk later. Now help me out. He’s heavy.”

 

 

*******

  
  
“So you’re staying?” Kingsley asked. “You’re sure?”  
  
Harry smiled. “Yeah, got a lot to learn here.” He glanced at Draco. The blond held a straight face as he stared back. Nothing was betrayed there. No smug ‘I told you so’, none of the concerned man who’d helped him to St Mungo’s and stayed with him for two weeks, none of the heat from when he’d kissed him the first time. There was definitely nothing at all of what they’d been up to before Blue had alarmed them to the fact someone was approaching Draco’s office. “A lot to learn.” Draco cocked an eyebrow like he was reading his thoughts.  
  
“What about you, Malfoy?”  
  
Draco turned to his boss. His face was legendarily straight. “Oh, I think he’d make a fine addition to my minions. They certainly seem to like him more than I do.”  
  
Harry grinned. “Doubt that.”  
  
Draco finally looked like a smile was trying to break free. He focused on the Minister instead. “I’ll have Blaise file the transfer papers.” He turned to Harry. “Welcome to Spell Development, Potter.”  
  
Kingsley stood. “Well, the Ministry is grateful to you, Harry. I know I feel a little safer with you running around behind the curtains this time.” As he reached the door, he turned back. “Just try to leave fewer holes next time, yes?”  
  
Harry nodded once. “I’ll try, Sir.” Kingsley smiled at him and left.  
  
Draco rounded the desk. “A lot to learn, huh?” Draco said in the ensuing silence.  
  
“Starting with that poker face of yours,” Harry said turning to him. “You must be spectacular under interrogation.” He stepped closer, leaning forward to rest himself against the blond. Hooded eyes stared up at him.  
  
“I’m spectacular under many things,” Draco said lowly. His face tilted upwards and his hands pulled on Harry’s auror uniform to bring the brunet’s mouth to his. He sucked on his bottom lip, worrying it between his teeth.  
  
Harry couldn’t help but lean even closer, hands bracketing the blond on the desk. “Mm, I’d love to see that.” He pushed forward until Draco backed up and his hands automatically found Draco’s thighs, running them up once and holding him in place by his hips on the desk.  
  
“Oh? Shouldn’t be long. Work day’s almost over.” Against all reason, he began to push Harry back. “Come on, up.”  
  
Harry glanced over at the clock on Draco’s desk. It was nearing five. “The work day has been over for half an hour. I’m just making up time.” He sealed their mouths together again urging Draco to relax into it and forget he wanted to leave the room. It was working too, Draco’s hands buried in his hair, the slide of his tongue taking his breath and making his lungs feel like they wanted to explode. He broke them apart to breathe, instantly moving to lick and kiss the side of his mouth, angling down towards his neck.  
  
The knock at the door, however, stopped him from going too far. The “Sir?” that followed made him rethink his feelings towards Charles in general.  
  
Draco began pushing him back again in earnest as he called out to Charles that he would be right there. Harry backed up with a reluctant sigh, as Draco started to fix his clothes. “Damn it, Harry. How did you even manage this?” Draco said, buttoning the shirt under his jumper.  
  
 _My magic wants you naked. All the time,_  was what he wanted to say, but that seemed a little forward, so Harry settled with, “I’m gifted.“  
  
Draco snorted and got up. He tucked his shirt in as he walked to the door. Harry watched him with heat in his eyes, knowing what was under there and wishing he had the time to take the blond apart. They were addictive the sounds he made.  
  
He was glad he’d been sought out for this job. He couldn’t really imagine his life now without this place in it, without Draco and his brilliant department. Without the minions and their quirky pride at the name.  
  
On the other side of the door, Charles waited patiently and handed Draco his four by six frame. “Oh, for Merlin’s sake,” he said irate. “Potter. Rain check, something’s come up in South America.” He turned to look into the room where Harry was still perched against his desk. “Fancy a trip to Chile? How’s your Spanish?”  
  
Harry smiled. Having just got out of the hospital, Draco had also been helping him with his wild magic. It turned out that apparition to difficult to reach places really helped temper it to more manageable levels. In the last two weeks, they’d begun testing his range and, so far, apparating to Europe and just beyond was a walk in the park. He was up for the challenge, though. “Depends. Does anything need to be blown up?”  
  
End.  
  
 **End Notes:**  For those of you interested, below is the floor plan for Draco’s department.

 

 

[CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO LIVEJOURNAL TO COMMENT](http://hd-smoochfest.livejournal.com/148530.html) (OR COMMENT BELOW!)


End file.
